


Tempered By Fire

by Namarie



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Magic, This is weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2019-11-13 19:15:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 36,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18037262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Namarie/pseuds/Namarie
Summary: What if Lucy's mother had an entirely different destiny planned for her daughter - something straight out of the oldest legends and myths? And then what if those plans were interrupted by destiny of a different kind, that exists between Lucy and Wyatt?An AU beginning at the end of season 1.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, um. If you've read my fic for other fandoms, you might notice a theme here. What can I say? I like dragons, okay?

~~  
“Oh, honey,” said her mother, opening her arms, “you don’t have to worry about that. Not anymore.”

Lucy, who had eagerly gone in for the embrace, now pulled back in confusion. “What? What do you mean, Mom?”

“I mean, it’s time for you to switch gears, anyway. Time for you to become what you were mean to be.” She was smiling warmly at Lucy, looking proud and excited.

Lucy blinked. The hair on the back of her neck started to rise. “I don’t understand,” she said, after what seemed like a long pause.

“Then let me show you what I mean,” her mom said. She bent over a small cabinet that was against the wall next to her – one that Lucy had somehow never noticed. When she stood up, Lucy stared at the object in her hands. It was a glass container of some kind, almost like a jar or vase with a lid, about the length of her mom’s forearm. But it was what was inside that drew Lucy’s attention. It looked to be full of a brightly-colored liquid, whose colors constantly shifted from red to blue to yellow to white, to more colors than she could name. And it was glowing. It was beautiful.

“Yes, that’s right,” said her mother softly. “Follow me, dear, and I’ll give you what you need.”

What she needed. Lucy glanced up at her mom’s face, then back down at the container. Yes, she did need it. Whatever that stuff was, she needed it. She reached toward it, only for her mom to slowly but surely start to walk away. Lucy followed.

“This way, Lucy,” her mom said, in that same soft, encouraging tone. “Just follow me for a while. Then you can have it.”

Lucy couldn’t look away. She couldn’t think about anything else. The liquid was so beautiful, and she needed to have it. To drink it. Swallowing, she followed her mom out of the room, out of the back door of the house, and down a little path in the backyard. It was dark, but the light from the glass container was enough illumination. They kept going.

Lucy vaguely noticed when her mother, still repeating her encouragement that it would only be a little while longer, led her to a door in the side of a small hill that she didn’t remember ever having seen before. That was weird. But she couldn’t waste time thinking about that right now. Her mother was going through the door, still carrying the beautiful, precious liquid, so she followed her inside.

They were now walking along a dimly-lit path through what must have been a very extensive cave system. Again, that was strange. Part of Lucy was very unhappy to be underground, walking through tunnels that were pretty narrow. Still, she couldn’t stop. She needed what her mother had. She had to keep going.

Eventually, they made it through a few smaller chambers into a huge cavern. Her mom walked to the center of it, and then finally stopped and faced her daughter. “Now, you can go ahead and take it, Lucy,” she said, smiling again and holding out the container. “It’s all yours.”

Lucy reached for it eagerly and took off the lid. It smelled even more delicious than she had imagined. It also smelled oddly familiar – but again, she couldn’t waste time thinking about what that could mean. Instead, she just started to drink.

And she drank, until the container was empty. It was a lot of – whatever it was, but that didn’t stop her. The flavor was like nothing she could even begin to describe. It was perfection, and it was bliss, and she didn’t want it to end.

But of course it did. Once she had swallowed the last drop, Lucy lowered the container with a sigh. She was really full now … which only made sense, considering how big the container was. But she also felt…

“Here, let me take that, sweetheart,” said her mom, taking the empty glass container. “Now, if I’m right, you’re starting to feel a little strange.”

“A little?” Lucy gasped, as she suddenly staggered. She wrapped her arms around herself. It felt like she was-- boiling, or that everything under her skin was. Like whatever she had just drank was going to make her explode.

“Don’t worry, my dear,” her mom said, sounding excited instead of at all concerned. “This is what’s supposed to be happening. Finally, you’re ready. Finally, everything I’ve done to prepare you for your true destiny is going to be worth it. Oh, Lucy, this is going to be amazing!”

Lucy looked up, even as she staggered again. Her mom wasn’t moving to help her. In fact, she was in the process of backing up, several yards and counting. “Mom,” Lucy said, then groaned and doubled over. It didn’t hurt, exactly, but whatever was happening to her was extremely confusing, and overwhelming, and it was making it hard to stand. “Mom!”

“It’s all right,” her mother called, still putting distance between the two of them. “Just let it happen. We’re making history tonight, Lucy – something beyond even what most of Rittenhouse ever dreamed was possible!”

Rittenhouse? Had her mother really just said--

But before Lucy could follow that chilling thought to its conclusion, the roiling, churning, boiling sensation in her body increased. She let out a cry and fell forward.

She didn’t hit the ground. Instead, her arms grew. All of her was growing. She was rapidly transforming – into something huge. She seemed to have four legs now, covered in gleaming brown scales that glinted with bronze. She had talons … and a tail, she could feel now. And the changes were still happening. A few seconds later, two wings burst from her back. She barely had time to notice all the new sensations that came with three new limbs and an entirely new body when she heard her mother shout, “Now!”

Lucy looked up – but not in time to do anything to prevent the six streams of light (no, it was _magic_ , not just light) shooting toward her all at once. They wrapped around her neck, joining together to form thick ropes. Panicking, Lucy immediately tried to pull away. But the ropes were incredibly strong. She couldn’t get away … and in fact, the six people who had cast the spells ( _magic was real, it was all real, how could that be?_ ) and who were holding onto the other ends of the ropes were now using them to pull her head down toward the ground. No matter how hard she tried to resist, she couldn’t stop them. When her head was only two feet or so away from the cave floor, they stopped, and then did something Lucy couldn’t see very well from her angle that pulled the ropes taut and fastened them in place. Her head and neck were effectively immobilized.

“All right,” came her mother’s voice, still from some distance away. “Now, let’s finish securing her.”

Again, even though she had more time to react now, none of Lucy’s struggling and thrashing did more than delay the inevitable. The six mages – her mother included – systematically secured her legs and her tail to the ground by short, impossibly strong ropes, and even fastened her wings together such that they could only either be folded against her back, or partially extended. It was infuriating, and painful, and Lucy hated every single part of it. The new, weird pain along much of her back was just an added bonus, one that she didn’t understand at all since it didn’t seem to be connected to how she was tied down.

“Good.” Her mom, now close enough that Lucy could see her just fine out of one eye, sounded and looked pleased although she was panting with effort. “We’ve done well today. I just want you all to think about this: we’ve brought forth the dragon that so many of our fellow members throughout history thought was just a legend. But she’s here, right in front of us. She’s strong, beautiful, and more powerful than we’ve even begun to explore. I know she’s going to help Rittenhouse change the world.”

Lucy wanted to beg her mom to stop, or to at least tell her why all this was happening. Why she was doing all of this to her own daughter. When she tried to speak, though, all that came out was a moan. The tightness of the ropes around her throat probably didn’t help.

“Oh, Lucy,” said her mother, quickly turning around and coming closer so she could lay her hand on Lucy’s face, “I’m sorry. This must be a lot for you to take in. I promise, I’ll come back and tell you all about it in a little while. But I hope you can be patient first. After all, we’re going to have years and years together now.” She beamed again, and then turned back to the five others.

There was her biological father, Lucy saw. Benjamin Cahill. And there was Noah, her ex-fiance, looking more upset than Cahill or the other three. Wait – one of them was Emma Whitmore. Lucy’s heart sank further. Her mother was Rittenhouse. She had just done some kind of-- some kind of insane magic to transform Lucy into a dragon, of all things. Her ex-fiance was Rittenhouse. And on top of all of that, Emma was a traitor? She wondered suddenly and fearfully what Emma might have done to Mason Industries. To Wyatt and Rufus, and the rest of them. She shut her eyes and tried to breathe.

“So what’s our first move?” Emma asked.

“We need to convene some of the other high-ranking members – the ones that weren’t caught up in Agent Christopher’s little raid, that is,” said Cahill. “They need to see this. They need to see her. When we’ve secured their allegiance, we can move on from there.”

“Exactly,” said Lucy’s mother. “Not that their allegiance will be difficult to secure, with what Lucy has to offer us all.”

“Of course not,” Cahill agreed, sounding almost smug. “The sooner we bring them all here, the better. And at least we shouldn’t be bothered by anyone from Mason Industries now.”

They were all leaving, after that cryptic and terrifying comment from her father. What did he mean? Lucy tried to shift her position, which was only sort of possible with the ropes or chains (she couldn’t see them to check) holding her down. They had given her just enough slack that she could almost sit comfortably. As comfortably as anything could with so many chains tying it down, she supposed.

“Are-- are we just going to leave her here, like this?” Noah asked, glancing over his shoulder.

“Why not?” Emma said with a shrug. “She’s tied down, she’s not going anywhere.”

“Well, yeah, but...”

Lucy’s mom went over to him and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Noah,” she said. “We can fine-tune the binding spells later, once we’re more sure of her strength and range of motion.”

Noah didn’t look satisfied, but he nodded and followed the rest of them out, through the tunnel Lucy and her mother had come in – just minutes ago.

As soon as they were all gone, Lucy threw all of her effort into fighting against the chains holding her down. But they didn’t give. She collapsed, as much as she could, and panted for breath. This was worse than any situation she could ever have imagined herself getting into as a result of her Rittenhouse heritage. Of course, she’d never imagined that her mother was Rittenhouse, too … or that she would do this. To her.

Lucy swallowed, shutting her eyes again. She wasn’t sure if she could cry in this form, but she didn’t want to, even if she could. She might be on her own now. It was possible that there was no one else left to fight Rittenhouse. As much as that possibility made her want to give up, she couldn’t. She would have to take things one problem at a time. So … at least she could start by using this time to try to adjust to this transformation. Learn about herself, as a dragon. Everything about it still felt strange, and not at all settled. Maybe taking this time would even help her figure out a way to get out of here. She didn’t know how her mother and father expected her to be so useful to Rittenhouse, but she did know she wanted no part of that.

~~  
For Wyatt, things started to go downhill even before the bomb blast.

First, after Lucy had left to go do whatever it was she needed to do before this last Lifeboat trip, he had felt a strange pang over his heart, strong enough that he’d had to stop and lean against the wall for a few seconds to recover. That was weird and unwelcome enough. He had no idea what could have caused it. Lucy needed him to be ready to help her in any way on this mission – not sidelined by a pain that made no sense.

Then, once he and Rufus had changed into their amazingly fashionable ‘70s garb, Wyatt was walking with his friend toward the Lifeboat when suddenly his vision got blurry. Then instead of the normal area around the Lifeboat at Mason Industries, he was seeing something else entirely – something that was completely nonsensical: there was someone in front of him, holding a big glass container that was full of the most bizarre liquid he’d ever seen. But it was oddly hypnotic, despite being so impossible-looking.

“Wyatt?”

Rufus’s voice made him look up, and the image of the strange jar of liquid vanished. Everything around him was back to normal. Wyatt cleared his throat and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Yeah?”

“Are you okay? You just stopped, and you were staring off into space.” Rufus was looking at him in obvious concern.

Wyatt tried to smile. For some reason, he was sure that whatever that weird glimpse had been, it had something to do with Lucy. And it wasn’t good. But he had no way to even begin to explain any of that, so he just told Rufus, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired, you know.”

“I get that,” the other man said. “Just try not to space out while we’re in the past, okay?”

“I’ll stay alert.”

But even as the two of them were beginning to wonder where the hell Lucy was, Wyatt’s own worry and discomfort were growing. The pain over his heart had returned and faded and come back several more times. And then he looked up and saw the bomb – just as the strangest sensation he’d ever felt rolled over his entire body. “Look out!” he tried to yell, and then there was an explosion, and then nothing.

 

When he next woke up, the first thing that Wyatt noticed was that he was on his side, with his wrists tied to the railing of the bed he was in. The reason for that became obvious as soon as he tried to move. The motion pulled at the skin around multiple injuries on his back, and he almost screamed. Right. The explosion.

While he was still recovering his breath, the door to wherever this was opened, and Rufus came in. He was looking at a tablet at first, but he quickly noticed that Wyatt’s eyes were open and set the tablet down. “Hey, you’re awake!”

“Where am I?” Wyatt asked. He didn’t recognize this place as being anywhere in Mason Industries that he knew of. At least Rufus didn’t seem to be injured. “Or where are we, I guess?”

Rufus sighed and sat down in the chair near Wyatt’s bed. “A secure facility,” he said. “Somewhere not too far away from what’s left of Mason Industries. The explosion almost leveled the place.”

Wyatt cursed, shutting his eyes for several seconds. There was no way everyone who had been there when the bomb went off could have gotten out alive, or with just a few minor injuries even. “Rittenhouse, I’m assuming. How many were killed?”

“Almost twenty people,” Rufus said somberly. “It was a good thing we weren’t going to make the jump to save Amy while the whole regular staff was there, but still.”

“Jiya? Agent Christopher? Mason?”

“All okay. You were the one who was injured the most out of all the survivors,” he said. Then he hesitated, and went on, “But no one’s heard anything from Lucy. Agent Christopher sent a team to her mom’s house, and there was no sign of her. And it’s been two days since the explosion.”

Wyatt clenched his jaw. That was not a good sign, not at all. On the other hand… “She’s not dead,” he said. He was absolutely certain, even though he couldn’t have said why. The skin over his heart twinged.

“Yeah, so you’ve been saying,” said Rufus warily. At Wyatt’s raised eyebrows, he sighed again. “Maybe I should go get Agent Christopher for this part.”

“Fine,” said Wyatt. This sounded ominous, for some reason. “Just make it quick.”

Apparently Agent Christopher hadn’t been far away, because she and Rufus were back within minutes – with a woman in a white doctor coat accompanying them. “Master Sergeant,” said Christopher, with a genuine smile. “It’s good to see you conscious. Are you in pain?”

“Not really,” said Wyatt, “as long as I don’t move. What’s going on? What was Rufus talking about? He said I’ve been saying Lucy isn’t dead, but I don’t remember.”

The agent and the doctor looked at each other. “That’s not too surprising that you don’t remember, Master Sergeant,” said the doctor. “You were delirious for most of your first twenty-four hours here, when you weren’t unconscious. It was difficult to get you to stay calm, even when we were trying to put you under to remove the shrapnel from your back. That’s part of the reason your wrists are secured like that.”

“Okay.” Nobody seemed like they wanted to offer any further explanation after that. He scoffed. “Come on, guys. Whatever it is that’s making you look at me like _I_ might explode, just tell me. Please.”

Both the doctor and Rufus looked toward Agent Christopher, who let out a breath and nodded. “Fine. Wyatt, when we found you inside the Lifeboat after the explosion, you were only half-conscious, but you kept saying, ‘They took her’ over and over again. You were very agitated. We had to sedate you after we strapped you down to the stretcher, because you kept trying to get up, even though you were so badly hurt. When we finally got you and Rufus here, Dr. Willis and the nurses started to try to prep you for surgery. But when they took off what remained of your shirt, they found-- well, it’s probably best if you see for yourself.”

“What do you mean?” Wyatt asked sharply. None of what she had said up to that point sounded too strange to him. Once again, though, he knew it was true that Rittenhouse had taken Lucy, without being sure how he knew. “I know I’m probably going to have scars on my back. I don’t care, as long as it won’t interfere with my job.”

“No, we’re not talking about possible scarring,” said the doctor, whose name was apparently Willis. “We’re referring to the mark on your chest, which we’ll show you in a mirror if you’re ready.”

His chest? But there was no reason that would have been injured in the blast. “Go ahead,” said Wyatt. He almost shrugged, but that wouldn’t have been smart. So he just waited until Agent Christopher had picked up a handheld mirror, and the doctor helped move the front of his hospital gown aside. And then he saw it.

Right over his heart, where those bizarre pangs had been happening for – well, it must have been days now, there was something that looked like a large, detailed tattoo. Except he was one hundred percent certain he didn’t have a tattoo on his chest … and even if he had gotten one, he wouldn’t have chosen anything like this. The main part was two letters, an L and a P, written in a cursive font. The black letters were artfully twined together, and the effect was nice, overall, if a little more blatant than Wyatt might have wanted. He could feel his face heating. But the most striking thing about the design was the dark brown dragon weaving itself around both initials, with wings spread wide and reaching almost to his left arm and collarbone. He swallowed, and cleared his throat. “What the hell is this?”

“We were just as shocked as you, at first,” said Dr. Willis. “There was nothing in your records about a tattoo, and although there was no evidence of swelling, like there would be if you had gotten it recently, the whole area seemed to be causing you pain.”

“I--” Wyatt stared at the image in the mirror. He would have touched the initials, if his hands were free to do so. “I’d been feeling some, uh, discomfort there for a few hours before the bomb went off. But I still don’t understand. It’s not a tattoo, in case you need me to tell you that.”

“No, but thank you for confirming,” said Agent Christopher, with a brief smile. Then she grew serious. “Also, I’m betting it’s not a mystery to you what the L P stands for.”

His face grew hot again. “No, I have a pretty good guess.”

“Good,” said the agent. She looked over at Rufus, and then said, “We shared that same guess, but what took us a little longer to figure out was that this mark, the way it appeared, and even your insistence that Lucy was still alive but that she’d been taken, all of that seems to mean that you and Lucy have become soulmates.”

Wyatt felt his jaw drop. That wasn’t possible. Soulmates were … that whole thing was almost a myth. There had been such a thing once, but no one had reported any soulmate pairs in existence for centuries. “How is that possible?” he managed to say.

“We don’t know,” said Dr. Willis, regarding him with some sympathy. “But it fits all the data we have, like nothing else does.”

“Plus, there’s one other fact that seems to corroborate your instinctive knowledge that Lucy was taken, by Rittenhouse we assume,” Agent Christopher went on. “It’s something we found in the files that Lucy’s grandfather gathered. A particular symbol. Rufus?”

With an unhappy nod, Rufus picked up the tablet he’d been looking at earlier and tapped the screen a few times. Then he passed it to Christopher. She turned it around so Wyatt could see what was there: a photo of a piece of parchment paper, with a large calligraphy R on it. The R looked extremely similar to the P that was drawn over his heart – right down to the stylized dragon wrapped around it. Wyatt felt like he’d just been punched in the gut. This was no coincidence. It had to mean some kind of bad sign, for how much Lucy was mixed up in Rittenhouse. What if it wasn’t just her biological father?

That reminded him of something. “Did your team catch Benjamin Cahill when they did their raid?”

Agent Christopher grimaced and said, “We were sure we had, but he somehow disappeared from custody.”

“Disappeared?” Wyatt felt a chill down his spine. She didn’t seem like she was using a figure of speech there. But it couldn’t be… Just because there was strong evidence to suggest that he and Lucy were part of something distinctly supernatural, that didn’t have to mean that Rittenhouse had some connection with magic. Did it?

“Yes,” said the woman. “We have no explanation. One minute he was there, in a cell, with a security camera on him. The next, his cell was empty.”

Rufus muttered something under his breath, and then said, “So … magic. Like real, actual magic. And of course Rittenhouse is full of mages?”

“We don’t know that for sure, Rufus,” said Agent Christopher. “But suffice it to say, all of us who are able are going to have to start researching whatever we can about magic and how to protect ourselves against it.”

“And meanwhile, Lucy is just going to be left at the mercy of a bunch of Rittenhouse mages. Is that it?” Wyatt said, aware that his voice was getting louder. He shifted slightly, hiding a wince at the shooting pain that caused in his back. “There’s nothing we can do to find her?”

“We’re not giving up, Wyatt,” Agent Christopher told him. “I promise you that. But we’re not finding a lot of leads right now, either.”

Wyatt was about to say something angry and not at all constructive, but instead his worry and need to find Lucy overwhelmed him and made the words die on his tongue. He thought back to the last time he’d seen her – how they had been talking about their next steps, and how he had tried, fumblingly, to let her know that he was open to more. And now she was…

He took a sharp breath. He was there with her now, all of a sudden. She was – it was hard for him to see her, but he could maybe see what she was seeing? It was dark, and not very warm, and she was lonely, scared, and in pain. He tried to focus on her surroundings, as much as it hurt him to know how she was feeling. She was underground. Maybe in a cave, it looked like. He saw two entrances to the large cavern she was in. And then suddenly he was back in the hospital room, with three faces staring at him. “She’s underground,” he said, blinking and breathing heavily. “In a cave, I think.”

After a pause, Agent Christopher nodded. “All right. Thank you, Master Sergeant,” she said. “I’ll pass that intel along to all of my search teams.”

“They should also know that,” his throat closed, but he made himself keep talking, “that they did something to her, to hurt her. But she’s still … strong.” It was hard to put all the impressions he’d gotten into words, but that was close, at least.

Agent Christopher nodded again, now looking worried. “It’s not exactly surprising to hear that, but I will pass those details along, too.”

A minute or so later, Dr. Willis and Agent Christopher left, after the doctor recommended he try to get some more rest. Rufus stayed a little longer. “Dude,” he said, as soon as the door closed, “this soulmate thing is seriously intense. Did you know your eyes changed color while you were – communing with Lucy, or whatever it was you were doing?”

Blushing, Wyatt missed part of his question at first. “I was not _communing_. I was-- I was just trying to find her. I don’t even know if she knew I was there, or not.” Then he caught up to the rest of it. “Wait. My eyes changed color?”

“Yeah,” said Rufus, his own eyes wide. “They were almost totally copper, or bronze, or some metallic color. It was kind of creepy.”

He frowned. That was a little disturbing. “Huh.”

“But I mean, it’s pretty awesome that you can reach her,” Rufus added quickly. “Don’t get me wrong.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Wyatt said. He sighed, and then yawned. “Although it would be more useful at this point if I could actually pinpoint where she is, instead of vague clues.”

“Hey, it’s more than we knew before,” his friend pointed out.

That was true. Wyatt found himself yawning again.

“I guess you do need to get some more rest,” said Rufus. He stood up, smiling a little. “It really is good to see you more back to your normal self, though.”

“Thanks.” A few seconds after Rufus had left the room, Wyatt was asleep.

~~  
Lucy let out something like a growl of frustration, as she realized she was staring toward the entrance to the cavern again. She didn’t want to make it obvious how lonely and bored she was, to the extent that anyone coming would be almost welcome for the break in the monotony they would provide. She was pretty sure this was only her second full day as Rittenhouse’s captive dragon, although the light didn't change that much down here. Two days was nothing. She had to be able to withstand this better, if she wanted to last long enough to get out of here. However that might come to be.

After everyone left that first night, she had been let alone to eventually fall into an uneasy sleep. And then early the next morning, the six who had been there previously came back, joined by eleven other people she didn’t recognize at all. They had all stared at her in awed silence at first.

“I would say I can’t believe it,” one of the newcomers said, a woman with short, graying hair, “but of course we have to. You really went ahead and did it, Carol.”

“To her own daughter,” said another woman, frowning. “I don’t see how this can be anything but a betrayal of our Rittenhouse understanding of the value of family – as impressive as the result is. You’ve effectively ended your own family line.”

“Have I?” Her mother smiled, coming to the front of the group so she could rest a hand on Lucy’s neck. Lucy moved away as much as she could, which wasn’t far at all. “I think you’ve forgotten what the old records say about how long dragons live. Remember? They’re practically immortal. And if you forgot about that, then you must have forgotten the primary reason why our ancestors sought to find and have control over one. Or maybe,” she went on airily, “you’re not interested in immortality for yourself, Diane. Maybe you’d rather die of old age – or some wasting disease.”

Diane, if that was her name, swallowed and then glared at Carol. “I never said anything of the sort,” she said.

“Good.” Lucy’s mother looked positively smug. “Then, if we’re all on the same page now, here’s what Ben and I require from those of you who are interested in allying yourself with this branch of Rittenhouse, the one that will last forever: your pledge of loyalty.”

That comment had set off a firestorm of protests and debate, which Lucy hadn’t tried to follow that closely. She was too busy being horrified that her mother had turned her into this because dragons were supposed to be the key to immortality. She didn’t know how exactly her mother was expecting her to pass on that theoretical quality she now possessed, to those in Rittenhouse her parents deemed worthy, but it didn’t seem like it could be anything pleasant. In fact, she had some terrifying ideas of what her mother might be thinking. She twitched her wings, as much as she could, and wished she had any idea of how to stop these plans.

At least nothing had come of it all – not yet. Evidently her parents’ proposal was too controversial to be settled in a single morning. But it sounded to Lucy like her mother wasn’t going to let the others think about it for too long – and she and Cahill gave them extremely strong warnings (almost to the level of threats, actually) not to tell anyone else about what they had seen before they left.

“Well,” said Carol, after the cavern was a little quieter and more empty, “that wasn’t a bad start. Now I think it’s time we bring Lucy some breakfast, and get ourselves some as well.”

“You’re not expecting us to stay down here now, are you?” Emma asked, clearly not pleased by the idea. “What, is Rittenhouse headquarters going to be in this cave from now on?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Emma,” said Cahill. “This place is hardly set up for long-term habitation, for humans that is. But we are going to be spending a significant amount of time here – and Lucy will need care.”

Lucy roared, and had the fleeting satisfaction of watching everyone there jump. But of course any alarm passed quickly, since they all knew she was totally helpless right now.

The rest of the day had been slow, for the most part. Lucy had been fed two goats that seemed to have been very recently slaughtered. She had been hungry enough to eat them without really giving herself time to consider how disgusting it was to be eating whole animals, complete with bones, fur, and internal organs. The real problem was, two goats wasn’t anywhere near enough. She was still really hungry. Not that she had any way of communicating that to her doting caretakers. In fact, the only unambiguously good thing to come out of her first feeding session was that Noah insisted that the ropes around her neck needed to be loosened, for her safety and ability to eat. Even the small amount of slack they gave her was a relief.

After that, she had been left mostly alone for hours. Her back had started to hurt again, which confused her. She missed Wyatt and Rufus, and was worried about them, too. She shut her eyes, thinking back to yesterday (which already felt far too long ago), when they had all been so happy and optimistic. When she and Wyatt had started to dare to think about their futures.

That was when the only other unambiguously good thing had happened, though she didn't understand it. Somehow, while she was thinking about Wyatt, she had suddenly felt like she was there with him, wherever he was. He was in pain, but alert and not in any danger, as far as she could tell. There were other people nearby – not enemies.

When those strange but powerful sensations faded, Lucy let out a sigh of relief. Wyatt was alive. He was mostly okay, though he seemed to have been injured somehow. And the fact that he was with other people was maybe an indication that Rufus and Jiya and the others were okay, too.

But that had all been yesterday. This morning, even when she tried to think about Wyatt in the same way as she had then, there had been no connection. No feeling like she was with him. It was frustrating and baffling. She still had the unshakeable conviction that he was alive, which was good. Still, even a strange, distant sort of contact with him would have been better than nothing. After all, there had been no one here with her since several hours ago, when she had been fed two slaughtered pigs.

A few minutes later, she was brought out of her gloomy musings by the sound of someone coming down the tunnel toward the main entrance to the cavern. It didn’t take her long to recognize the scent of her ex-fiance. (Her sense of smell was much more sensitive in this form, she had noted, although her eyesight wasn’t great.) He was alone, which was odd.

Noah came closer, until he was just a few feet from her head. “Uh, hi,” he said. He scratched the back of his neck. “Sorry you’ve been left alone for so long. There’s a big meeting that’s about to happen not too far away, but I’m not important enough for anyone to have noticed me slip away.”

Lucy stared at him. It was … sort of nice, to have someone talking to her like she was a person who actually had thoughts and feelings. But she had no idea what Noah was doing here.

“Anyway, I’m going to try and see if I can give you some more slack in those binding spells,” he said, after a pause. “I’m not the most powerful mage, but this is one thing I’m good at.”

Lucy would have raised her eyebrows, if she still had them. Instead, she stood still and waited. And in fact, with some under-his-breath cursing and muttering, Noah managed to loosen the ropes on each of her limbs. She could now sit down and stand up much more easily. She could also now raise her head to a level that felt more natural and put less strain on her neck. She sighed.

“I hope that helps,” said Noah, coming to stand where he had been at first.

Lucy considered for a second, and then nodded.

He smiled. “Well, good.”

So Noah at least didn’t want her to be suffering unnecessarily. That was good to know. Of course, he was still complicit in her capture and imprisonment … but maybe she could use his limited compassion to her advantage, anyway.

“I think I should warn you,” Noah said then, “that after this meeting, your mother and father are expecting to have everyone’s pledges secured, which means they-- we’ll all be ready for what she’s calling initiation.”

Lucy tilted her head, hoping he would gather that she didn’t know what that meant.

He sighed. “Right. Um. She’s got some more wild magic that she’s distilled for you. Once you’ve taken it, it’s supposed to make you drowsy and also numb your pain receptors. After that, she’s-- she’s going to draw some blood.”

Lucy jerked away as far as she could. Her cry of outrage and horror sounded more like a scream, but Noah clearly got the picture. He winced, and looked down. “I’m sorry.”

If you were really sorry, Lucy wished she could say, you would do something to stop this. Plus, she noted that he hadn’t said _he_ was going to abstain from this disgusting ceremony. Apparently, any care he had for her was still outweighed by his desire to gain immortality.

“Anyway, I need to get back now, before anyone notices I left,” the man said, now avoiding her gaze. “But I’ll-- I’ll make sure we do this in a way that will hurt you as little as possible.”

She let out a growl at that, leaving Noah in no doubt how she felt about that comment. And then he left, and she was alone again. Except now she knew what was coming. It was worse, worse than she had imagined and worse than being kept in the dark. If only she had any idea how to resist, or to stop this from happening … but there was nothing.

~~


	2. Chapter 2

~~  
By the next day, Dr. Willis pronounced Wyatt well enough not to have to stay in his hospital room anymore. His back was still torn up and painful, but it was healing, and the heavy-duty pills they prescribed helped a lot for the pain.

“You’re still going to need to have regular checkups, stay on oral antibiotics to prevent infection, and someone’s going to have to help you change your bandages for another week, or possibly two,” she told him. “But considering how you looked when you came in just a few days ago, you’re on the right track.”

Agent Christopher, who Wyatt had given permission to be in the room for the end of his checkup, looked pleased. “So he’s well enough that a short trip won’t cause him any undue stress?”

“He should be,” said the doctor, “as long as appropriate cautions are taken.”

“Trip?” Wyatt asked, wincing a little as he slipped the loose button-up shirt over his bandages. “Where?”

“I’m moving you all to a secure government facility, very much off the radar,” Agent Christopher said. “We have to assume Rittenhouse would like to find us and finish us off, so you, Rufus, Jiya, and Connor are all in constant danger.”

That was very probable, Wyatt had to agree. He buttoned a few of the shirt’s buttons, and then looked up. “What about you and your family?”

She smiled a bit. “I appreciate you thinking of it, but don’t worry, Wyatt. I’ve got them covered. Do you feel up to relocation?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I do.”

Despite his assurance, the journey to Agent Christopher’s secure facility was not easy for Wyatt. Even getting out of this place wasn’t easy. He wasn’t up for a long walk yet, so that left a wheelchair as his only option. The trouble was, he couldn’t exactly lean back against the back of the chair. So he had to hold himself rigidly upright for that whole portion of the trip, and then sit facing sort of to the side once he’d gotten into the car. At least then he could awkwardly lean against the door.

By the time they arrived at the facility, which turned out to be a decommissioned nuclear shelter, Wyatt was exhausted, and regretting his certainty that he could do this. To top it all off, he was going to have to climb down a ladder to get into this place, and the muscles in his back were already complaining at the unusual way he’d been sitting for the better part of an hour. This was going to be brutal.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Agent Christopher asked, as they all approached the entrance to what was basically an underground bunker.

“Does it really make a difference if I’m not?” Wyatt said, breathing heavily and glancing back toward the car they had left behind. “Are you going to drive me all the way back to the hospital, now that we’re out here? Trust me, that won’t help.”

“Fine.” But she was clearly not happy about it, and neither were Rufus or Jiya, or even Mason. They were all watching him as he stood there like they were afraid he was going to collapse at any moment.

“Um, no offense,” said Rufus, clearing his throat, “but Wyatt, maybe you shouldn’t go down that ladder first. I mean, in case someone needs to catch you.”

Wyatt snorted. “Already had that same thought, man. I can wait.”

Eventually, they all made it safely inside. As soon as possible after that, Wyatt allowed Rufus to help him into the room that would be his and Rufus’s. He lay down on his stomach, on the old cot with its fresh sheets and blankets. Once he was horizontal, he slept like a stone for hours.

A combination of some very disturbing and bizarre dreams, as well as his painkiller wearing off, woke him up sometime before noon. But even as he reached for his bottle of pills and struggled into a sitting position, Wyatt wished he hadn’t already forgotten most of the details of his most recent dream. It had been about Lucy, he knew that much. Something had been happening to her. She had been scared, but in a strange, detached way, like she only knew she was supposed to be scared. And then someone had come toward her … but he really couldn’t remember the rest. He sighed. He needed to get up, and go eat something so he could take his medicine on a full stomach.

The rest of the day dragged by. Part of that was because Wyatt didn’t have the stamina to do much in the way of helping his friends set up the bunker to be as much of a home as possible. He mostly just had to sit around – carefully, without putting weight on his back. Which was really boring, even if he did also continue to sleep a lot.

The most awkward part of the day was when it came time for his bandages to be changed. There was no doctor or nurse in residence at the bunker (which Wyatt didn’t blame anyone for), so since Rufus and Jiya – and Mason – were currently busy going over the Lifeboat to pinpoint everything that was going to need repairs, the task fell to Agent Christopher.

“Don’t worry, Master Sergeant,” she said, with a small smile, “I keep up to date on my first aid certification.”

“I believe you,” he told her. Still, there was no way this wasn’t going to be at least a little uncomfortable, for a variety of reasons.

But as it turned out, things got strange right away in a way that Wyatt hadn’t expected at all. Sitting down on his cot, he’d only just taken off his shirt when Agent Christopher let out a wordless exclamation. “Wyatt,” she said then, a very odd tone in her voice, “what-- what is that?”

“Huh?” Wyatt tried to twist around, and gritted his teeth at the resulting sharp pain across his back and shoulders. He waited until it faded to demand, “What are you talking about?”

“I’m going to need to find a mirror for this,” she said. “You’re going to have to see it to believe it.”

That sounded like-- like something else had appeared on his skin. Which seemed excessive, at this point. He already had a soul mark.

But Agent Christopher hurried out of the room, and came back with a small handheld mirror. “This isn’t the best size to show you, but let me see if I can...” Then she sighed. “Nope. I guess you’re going to have to come look at this in the bathroom mirror.”

Following his boss into the bathroom while he was shirtless just made this even weirder, Wyatt thought, holding back his own sigh as he slowly got to his feet. Hopefully none of the rest of the bunker’s new inhabitants would need to use the facilities right now.

But as soon as he saw what she’d wanted him to see, using the larger mirror in the bathroom and the handheld mirror, Wyatt forgot about the weirdness of having Agent Christopher there. “What the hell?!” He reached around as best as he could. The dark brown … scales, yes, they had to be scales-- on both of his shoulder blades were just as smooth to the touch as they looked like they would be. The overlapping pattern of scales started at the top of each of his shoulder blades and covered nearly all of them. In between, they almost reached the base of his neck. He couldn’t look away. This was-- He swore under his breath. This was possibly even more unbelievable than the soul mark. It was definitely more baffling.

“Are they dragon scales?” Agent Christopher asked, her tone almost hushed.

Wyatt cleared his throat. “I don’t know,” he said. He thought about the dragon that formed part of his soul mark, and added, “But I guess they might be.”

“I hadn’t even thought about all the mythical creatures that might not be so mythical, if magic is making a comeback,” she said.

“But I--” Wyatt stopped. He had no way of knowing whether this was going to continue or not. Whether he was actually undergoing a very slow transformation of some kind … and what that meant for Lucy. Since this was obviously connected to her in some way. Resolutely, he looked away from the mirrors. “Look, can we just get these bandages changed, please?”

Agent Christopher raised her eyebrows, but agreed. Once he was sitting down in his room again, she got to work taking off the old bandages. It was, as usual, an excruciatingly slow process. At least this time, Wyatt had something new to take his mind off it, though. Not that this latest thing was at all relaxing, of course.

When Agent Christopher removed the covering on his last shrapnel wound – the most serious one – she paused. “Wow.”

“What?” Wyatt asked. Was there yet another insane mark or change on his skin? He held his breath.

“Nothing bad,” she hurried to say. “It’s just that, uh, this last injury site is high enough to coincide with your scales on that shoulder. And maybe because of that, while there’s still a significant wound there, it’s healed over much more than I was expecting to see.”

Wyatt let out the breath. “Huh.” Maybe not all of this was going to be bad (or at least bewildering) news. “All right.”

“Everything else looks like it’s healing normally,” she told him. “So at least the trip here didn’t cause you any visible harm.”

“Good.” Wyatt handed her the rest of the unused bandages. “And, uh, thank you, by the way. For doing this.”

“You’re welcome,” she told him sincerely. Then she pointed in the general direction of his back. “Regarding this new development, I see no reason why you need to tell anyone else about it unless you want to. But I’m sure it’s already crossed your mind that it could be tied in some way with your soulmate bond.”

He nodded. “Yeah, it has.”

“Then I expect your research will no doubt be guided by the set of new questions that are probably filling your head right now,” said his boss. “And if you find any answers that might be relevant to the rest of us, can I ask you to keep us informed?”

That was fair. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll do that.”

“Glad to hear it.”

~~  
One Week Later

Lucy barely looked up as Noah and another Rittenhouse member came in. She could smell that they were bringing her lunch. That in itself was not unwelcome. It was also clear that they had continued with the larger meal size Noah had begun to recommend, upon noticing that she seemed to be losing weight. Lucy would eat what they provided. She hadn’t gotten that far yet. But she was getting close. Nothing she did ever had any effect on the ropes tying her down. There was no way for her to escape, and there was no way she had found to resist, to stop herself being used by Rittenhouse (and her _mother_ ) just the way they had planned.

Her mother had brought her distilled wild magic – the brightly-colored, beautiful liquid that she had used to lure Lucy down here in the first place – on two evening occasions now, and both times, Lucy had only been able to hold out against drinking it for a minute at most. It just smelled so delicious, and she knew it tasted even better. And that meant she had been too drugged to try to keep the whole group of Rittenhouse devotees from taking her blood afterward. She had no idea if her blood really did grant longer life or immortality to humans. Hell, she had no idea if she herself was going to live forever now. But either way, Rittenhouse was getting what they wanted from her. She couldn’t stop them.

“Lucy?” Noah’s voice made her look up, at least a little. “Are you-- are you ready to eat?”

She sighed and opened her mouth, without even standing up. If Noah said anything else to her while he carefully placed the food in her mouth, she tuned it out. Eventually, after she had eaten the last of the four goats she was brought this time, she fell asleep.

Sometime later, she became aware that there were people arguing, not too far away from her. She cracked open an eye.

“What do you mean, you don’t see any signs?” Noah said just then – or almost shouted. Then he shot a look at Lucy and lowered his voice. “They’re obvious! You don’t have to have medical training to see it. She’s barely gained any weight back since we increased her calorie intake, her scales are losing their luster, and she doesn’t do anything but lie there. She’s not well, Carol.”

Carol. Her mother. Her mother who had tricked her, and tied her up, and was keeping her a prisoner so that she could be used. Lucy shut her eye again, even as her mother sighed and said, “Maybe you’re right, but what other choice do we have? We can’t exactly let her loose.”

“No, you’re right, I guess we can’t,” he said, sounding angry. “Even if we took off her binding spells, she’s stuck down here. There isn’t even any natural light here for her.” Then he lowered his voice even further, and Lucy guessed by the faint sounds of movement that he was leaning in closer to her mother’s face. “So, congratulations. Your brilliant plan is only going to last as long as your daughter’s obvious depression is outweighed by her desire to stay alive. Once she gives up, I’m not force-feeding a goddamn dragon. You can figure out how to do that yourself. Oh, and in case you need my _expert_ opinion, you can’t very well keep taking blood from a corpse.” With that, he stalked out of the cave.

There was a period of silence, during which Lucy had almost drifted off again. Then she heard her mother coming closer. Without looking at her, Lucy got up and withdrew as far as she could before lying down again. It was symbolic, of course – it wasn’t like she could get that far away. But she knew her mother had understood. She gasped a little, and stopped where she was. “Lucy?”

Lucy kept her eyes shut. She felt a flash of rage, of the pain of betrayal she had been stewing in for the first several days down here, and for a moment she wondered what her mother would do if she suddenly lunged for her, teeth bared. But then that passed, and she went back to the same dull despair as before.

“Lucy, I--” Her mother trailed off. “This wasn’t the way I wanted it to be.”

Lucy spared a moment to wonder how exactly her mother imagined this could have gone differently. Then she did her best to ignore the woman completely. If this was her only way of resisting, of striking back against this person whom she had once loved and idolized, she would take it.

At the same time, there was something at the back of her mind that had been keeping her from giving up entirely. She didn’t spend much time thinking about it, but it was there. _He_ was there.

~~  
Wyatt blinked and yawned, trying to refocus on the article he was supposed to be reading. Lately, it had been harder and harder to stay focused on much of anything. It wasn’t because his injuries felt worse, or that he’d taken more of his meds than he was supposed to. It had nothing to do with the bizarreness of having discovered dragon scales on his shoulders. The scales hadn’t spread, which seemed to suggest he wasn’t transforming. Still, throughout the days (and some of the nights) during that whole next week, he felt listless and despondent a lot of the time. He did his best to push through, though. It wasn’t like his situation was actually that terrible: he was safe, recovering well, and living with friends and colleagues. Yes, the bunker was old and outdated, and not in the best of repair. It was dark and tended to be drafty. But he’d lived in much worse conditions before. So the only reason he could see for feeling this close to depression was…

Lucy. Of course. Wyatt sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. What had he just read a few days ago? Soulmates were not supposed to be kept apart. It only made sense. Soulmate pairs were rare enough, even in the days of widespread magic, that there weren’t that many stories about what happened when they were separated for a long period of time. The few that had been written down, however, seemed to suggest that a pair that went without contact with each other for too long would eventually sicken, and then lose the will to live.

Well, he wasn’t feeling sick, Wyatt thought. Lucy, on the other hand… He didn’t know very much about how she was doing (which was a thought that never ceased to cause him anxiety in itself), but what he did know was enough to point to a very unhealthy environment. And they weren’t really any closer to finding her, either.

Sighing, Wyatt set down his tablet on the little table next to the couch. He stretched, careful not to pull too much at his scabs. Research on magic and dragons wasn’t going to help him find Lucy. Their only clues so far had come when he was able to make some sort of contact with her. It was time to try that again – even though his last couple of attempts hadn’t yielded much of anything. He was always able to find her, but he hadn’t been able to do more than get that vague sense that she was underground.

Wyatt shut his eyes, reaching out for his instinctive sense of his soulmate. He found her quickly. This time, though, when he pushed a bit to see if he could at least find out how she was doing, he almost recoiled at the immediate evidence of just how unhealthy she was.

Her thoughts were slow, disjointed, and unfocused – not at all like Lucy’s mind should be. Her levels of physical pain seemed like they were lower than last time he’d made contact like this, but her emotions… Wyatt clenched his fists. His own depression was coming from her. Because she was a captive, and she was losing hope of getting out of-- wherever she was. This was unacceptable.

I’m sorry, Lucy, he thought. I’m sorry we haven’t found you.

To his shock, she reacted as if he had really spoken to her. And then: _Wyatt? Was-- was that you?_

Wyatt bit back a cry. _You can hear me?_ He tried to answer in the same way she had.

_Yes!_ He could feel her amazed happiness. _You really are alive! I knew it!_

_And you’re alive_ , he said, hoping she could feel his own joy and relief at being able to communicate with her. _But I know you’re being held prisoner, and you have been ever since the explosion at Mason Industries. I’m so sorry we haven’t found you._

Lucy gasped – or did something equivalent to that. _Explosion? Are you okay? Is everyone okay?!_

_Some employees didn’t make it_ , he told her, _but Jiya, Rufus, Mason, Agent Christopher, they’re all fine. I got a few cuts and bruises on my back, but I’m all right._

Now he felt her anger. _It was Rittenhouse, Wyatt_ , she said furiously. _I’m sure of it. My-- something my biological father said makes me sure._

Well, that was an interesting piece of information, that her father was there or at least had been there with her. _Yeah, we were pretty sure, too. But hey, now that we can talk, can you tell me--_

_How_ can _we be talking like this?_ Lucy interrupted then. She paused, and sounded very uncertain when she spoke again. _Is it something … magic-related?_

Wyatt let out a breath. Apparently she hadn’t discovered her soul mark yet, which was strange. A part of him wanted to be hurt by that fact, that she didn’t even know yet. Maybe it had to do with the way she was being held prisoner, though. He hoped she hadn’t just gotten an impression from him of being hurt right then. He didn’t want to make her feel guilty for anything, much less something she couldn’t control. _Yes_ , he said, _kind of. Have you happened to notice a new mark on your skin, over your heart?_

She was silent for long enough that Wyatt almost started to worry they had lost this connection, at least for the time being. But then, with a surge of emotions too complex for him to process all at once, she said, _No, I haven’t noticed. I … I can’t really look at myself there right now._ Then a second later, _Wait. But you have one? Wyatt…_ And now there was a rush of affection and longing and amazement. _Wyatt, are you saying that you-- that we’re…_

_Well, mine is your initials_ , he said, unable to keep from smiling even though so much of this was so very far from ideal right now. He knew he needed to tell her more than that – and to his relief, it didn’t seem like he was going to chicken out this time. _And I can’t think of anyone else named L P in my life who’s as important to me as you are._

_Wyatt_ , she said again, with more longing, some joy, and then grief, _this is … this is really terrible timing._

He laughed once. _You’re right about that. But now that we can talk like this, can you tell me where they’re holding you? Then we can finally find you and get you out of there._

At that, to his shock and dismay, all of the relief and happiness seemed to fade away. _No, you can’t. Even if I tell you where I am – even if you find me, there’s no way for me to leave. I’m-- I’m stuck here._

_What?_ Wyatt swallowed. He suddenly thought of the scales on his shoulders, and a few things started to fall into place. _Lucy, did Rittenhouse do something to you, to change you?_

She had just started to reply when he felt her awareness shift. There was a moment of surprised displeasure, and then a glimpse of two people in front of her – people who seemed a lot smaller than they should be, from where she was. Then the connection was gone.

“Lucy!” He sat forward, and his physical surroundings came back into sharp focus. Including Jiya, who was staring at him from a couple of yards away in the common area. She had an expression on her face that suggested she’d been there for a while. “Uh. Hi, Jiya. What’s going on?”

“I was just going to ask you the same thing,” she said. “Are you okay? You looked-- I don’t know. Your eyes looked, um, really different, and you were just looking straight ahead. Sort of frozen.”

Wyatt stood up, picking up his tablet and concealing a wince at how stiff his back had gotten during the time he’d been sitting on the couch. “I need to talk to Agent Christopher. Is she around?”

“Uh, yeah, I think so,” Jiya said. “Why? Did you … see something?” Her voice sounded odd, but Wyatt couldn’t worry about that.

“Yeah. Lucy. Well, I talked with her – I didn’t really see her.”

But in spite of all the arguments Wyatt made after he gave this update, Agent Christopher refused to allow him to use his sense of Lucy’s location (which was vague at this distance, although he was sure it would get clearer as he got closer) to track her down. “I’m glad you were able to communicate with her, and while I understand your worry about her mental state, you’re not even fully recovered from your shrapnel wounds, Wyatt,” she said. “By the time you have recovered, if you have more information from Lucy, or if my people have narrowed down her location ourselves, then we can talk again. I will be more than happy to send in a full rescue team once it makes sense to do so.” She paused, and met his gaze directly. “And I do mean a full team. Not just you going off alone so focused on the goal of finding your soulmate that you ignore any risk to yourself.”

Wyatt flushed, irritated that she had pointed out the admittedly large flaw in his unspoken plan. “So, you’re ordering me not to leave? What, are we prisoners down here?” Just like Lucy, wherever she is, he didn’t add. He was pretty sure it went without saying.

He could tell that Mason, Jiya, and Rufus were now distinctly aware of the tension in the room. Mason cleared his throat, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, “He has a point, you know.”

For her part, Agent Christopher just crossed her arms and met his glare without flinching. “This is protective custody, Wyatt. Rittenhouse tried to kill all of you just over a week ago, and they would do it again if they could. I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“Fine,” Wyatt snapped. Then he searched for one of the articles he’d been reading on his tablet, and when he found it, he held out the tablet for her to take. “But if you can’t find her, and you keep me down here for too long, she’s going to die. And then so will I, and protective custody won’t stop it.”

He saw the moment Agent Christopher read the passage he was referring to. Her eyes widened. Before she could say anything, though, Wyatt turned and stalked out of the room, ignoring everyone else’s dismayed faces. He kept going until he was in his room. Once he had slammed the door behind him, he had to work pretty hard not to continue to take out his anger by punching the concrete wall. Hell, if the rest of the stuff he had read about soulmates was true, Lucy would feel it if he broke his hand. He scoffed, and then sank down onto his bed with his head in his hands. This was intolerable. There had to be a way to stop this – to find her and get to her. There had to be.

~~  
Lucy was supremely frustrated at her mother for interrupting the first chance she’d had to talk with Wyatt in well over a week. It had been so good – so _necessary_ – to talk with him, to have direct confirmation that he really was alive. And now she knew the incredible reason why they had been able to have any contact at all, despite being (she assumed) miles apart. But she wasn’t even given the chance to start processing this news, because now her mother was here, with some other Rittenhouse woman. They were both staring at Lucy. After a second, Lucy recognized the other person as one of the older women who had showed up with the group of Rittenhouse leaders the day after her transformation. Thinking about it, Lucy wasn’t sure whether this woman had been present at the “initiation” or the other time her blood had been drawn and distributed. She was wary, nonetheless.

“Hmm,” said the woman, taking a step closer and continuing to examine Lucy as much as she could while maintaining a safe distance, “I agree with Noah’s assessment, Carol. She’s not healthy. It’s no wonder, when you and your faction have decided to keep a creature who is meant to be able to fly and feel the sun tied up in an underground cave.”

Lucy’s mother frowned. “Are you suggesting I should have kept her where anyone can see her, or just allowed her to fly away?”

“Not necessarily, no,” the woman said. She started to make a circuit around Lucy, and Lucy could feel her scrutiny. “I applaud your boldness and ingenuity in turning this myth of ours into a reality. But it seems to me that in your eagerness and single-minded focus on this goal, you overlooked some of the other elements of the legends about dragons. That’s why I’ve been less willing to throw my support behind you and Benjamin.”

“What elements are you talking about, Wanda?” said Lucy’s mother. Lucy recognized her tone as the one she got when she was trying to remain polite to someone who had insulted her. It was usually a dangerous tone. That wasn’t surprising, since this Wanda had basically just told her mother, the renowned historian and professor, that her research was flawed at best.

“You seem to have focused on the stories and legends that describe the magic and power inherent in dragons,” Wanda said, as she continued her circuit around Lucy. “Of course, that aspect is crucially important, and to have that power available to us is extraordinary. But there is a record of previous human-dragon interactions, which you either didn’t read or decided wasn’t important.”

Carol narrowed her eyes. “I read it. All of it. I know how to research.”

Wanda just shrugged. “I believe that, in general. However, this time, you seem to have been reading only for what you wanted to see.”

“What don’t you think I wanted to see, then?” Now her impatience was obvious.

“We are meant to treat dragons with respect,” said Wanda. She stopped at Lucy’s other side, gesturing at the ropes (binding spells, Lucy reminded herself) on her legs and tail. “The earliest Rittenhouse records describe dragons with reverence and awe.”

“Yes, well,” said Lucy’s mother, “they were referencing wild dragons, not a dragon brought into being by human efforts. And the earliest Rittenhouse records also supported slavery and the oppression of women.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. Her mother probably didn’t even know just how disgusting David Rittenhouse had been – unless he’d written a lot of personal thoughts and observations down that had been preserved, she supposed.

Wanda nodded. “True. Those are both fair points,” she acknowledged. They were now both back where they had started: in front of Lucy’s head. “This is a different situation, and we have of course evolved as an organization. But just because this dragon was your daughter doesn’t mean she will survive, if you and your faction continue to treat her as a resource for your use.”

“Well, we can’t very well move her to a more suitable environment at this point,” said Lucy’s mother, and now she looked deflated. “And yes, before you say anything, I recognize that as a huge oversight on my part.”

Wanda didn’t belabor that point. “We can try other things to at least improve her situation, then, while we work together to find a solution to the larger problem,” she said. “But in the meantime, it’s my strong recommendation that you stop taking blood. She’s weakening enough as it is.”

Lucy held her breath as she watched her mother consider this. Just because she hadn’t been fully aware of herself and her surroundings both times her blood had been taken didn’t mean she didn’t feel the violation deeply. Plus, the fact that this other woman seemed to think it might still be possible to get her out of here eventually was sort of encouraging, despite her obvious desire to keep Lucy under Rittenhouse control after that.

“Agreed,” her mother said after a long pause, and Lucy let out her breath in a rush. “What are your suggestions for first steps?”

By the end of the day, Lucy’s cavern was equipped with a sort of skylight in the ceiling directly above her, allowing sunlight and moonlight to fall on her. It had been installed via magic, although Lucy thought the skylight itself was normal window glass. Two narrow tunnels had also been dug (carefully, keeping structural integrity of the cavern in mind) to increase air circulation. Aside from those steps, Wanda also suggested twenty-four/seven lights inside the cavern – obviously dimmer at night, but enough to keep her from feeling abandoned. All of those things were welcome improvements. They were all only making her prison cell less awful, though. Lucy felt no gratitude, only a small amount of relief.

“I’d also like to suggest that we remove at least one of the binding spells,” Wanda said, once this had all been accomplished. Lucy was currently being fed her dinner, while she kept aware of the goings-on around her. “Maybe on her tail, or her wings.”

That would be something, Lucy thought. The trouble was, she doubted her mother would allow it. Her mother knew---

Lucy’s mother shook her head. “That’s out of the question, unfortunately. She’s-- not cooperative, and so if we allow her to, she will use any chance she has to strike at us, with her wings or her tail or her claws.”

“Ah,” said Wanda with a nod. “That will be another issue that requires more thought, then. As long as we’re all agreed on the importance of changing her circumstances for the better.”

“We are all agreed on that,” was her mother’s response. The two women retreated to the far end of the cave, discussing potential solutions to the two main problems in front of them.

Lucy had just finished eating and lay down as usual, licking the animal blood off her mouth. She was feeling fairly relaxed, as she often did right after a full meal. But just as she was about to close her eyes for a nap, a wave of fury, fear, and worry hit her so suddenly that she almost lurched to her feet. As it was, the way she raised her head made the nearest Rittenhouse guy (she hadn’t learned his name yet) flinch away. There was nothing she could see or hear around her that should have prompted such a reaction, though. She lay down again … and then realized.

It was Wyatt. Something had just happened with him to produce those emotions. Lucy sighed. She had a feeling she knew part of the cause. She felt the same anger at their enforced separation, the same anxiety about his wellbeing as he no doubt felt about her. On top of that, she couldn’t help wondering what he would think, when he finally learned what kind of transformation she’d been forced to undergo. She hadn’t had time to tell him during their conversation earlier. She hadn’t been planning to lie to him or try to hide, but she wasn’t eager to tell him, either. After all, what was he supposed to do with a dragon for a soulmate?

~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who has given this story a try!
> 
> And thanks to Mack_the_Spoon for the beta. Any remaining mistakes are my own.


	3. Chapter 3

~~  
Wyatt was relieved that no one tried to talk to him for the rest of that evening. Somehow, he eventually managed to calm down enough to fall asleep that night. He must have, since he dreamed. In the dream, a woman who looked vaguely familiar was smiling at him, holding out a cup of some very bizarre-looking liquid to him while he was lying in bed. He trusted this woman, and took the cup without question. The liquid was delicious, though as usual in dreams, he could only tell that because he knew it was supposed to taste delicious, not because he could really taste it. After he drank it, his eyes slipped shut almost immediately. And then he couldn’t open them again, no matter how hard he tried. And someone was doing something to him, but he couldn’t tell what it was, only that it was bad. He struggled, or tried to. The drug, whatever the woman had given him, was keeping him from moving.

Wyatt finally struggled awake, gasping. The room was dark around him, but there was enough ambient light for him to recognize where he was quickly. He took several slow, deep breaths. Just a dream.

Except… His heart sank as he recalled having seen a glimpse of some kind of liquid like that, at Mason Industries before he and Rufus had gotten into the Lifeboat. And he knew, just as he had then, that it had to do with Lucy. He had been experiencing one of her dreams, or maybe a memory. Which meant... Had Rittenhouse drugged Lucy to take her captive? Were they still drugging her? She hadn’t sounded drugged last time they had spoken, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t been happening at other points.

Not that it really helped anything for him to worry about this in the middle of the night. He had tried to reach out to her a number of times today, but without success. So he still didn’t know where she was. As soon as he did, though, he had already decided he was going to go find her – no matter whether Agent Christopher agreed to allow him, or not. He would find a way out of this bunker himself if he had to.

The next day, Agent Christopher came to find him when it was time for his bandages to be changed, as usual. She made no mention of his outburst from the previous day – at least not at first. Once they were finished putting on the new bandages (thankfully not as much was needed by now, since he had been healing well), and she updated him on how his injuries were looking, that was when she changed the subject. “Wyatt, before I go,” she said, stopping him before he stood up, “I wanted to tell you that I’m not just going to let you and Lucy get sick and die because of this separation. Whatever happens, that’s not an option.”

“I appreciate that, ma’am,” said Wyatt, grabbing his shirt and pulling it on. And he did appreciate it … but he still wasn’t going to rely on any help from anyone else, if it came down to it.

“That means you’re not a prisoner,” she said. That was startling enough for him to give her his full attention. She gave him a sad smile. “If it comes to a time when you or Lucy – or both of you – are starting to get sick, I’m not going to tie you down and make you stay here. But I hope you will at least try to give me some warning before you leave.”

He looked at her for a few seconds, and then nodded slowly. “Understood.”

 

The breaking point came four days later – not from sickness, but from another dream. This time, when Wyatt finally fell asleep after hours of tossing and turning, he saw Lucy’s surroundings more clearly than before. She was in the same cave as he’d already seen, but there was daylight around her, which was new. And there was a woman in front of her. It was the same woman Wyatt had seen in the other dream a few days ago, the one who had given him the cup of liquid. She was holding out a small glass container full of that same brightly-colored stuff. But as he (Lucy) recoiled, the woman’s features blurred and shifted. Now it was a redheaded woman with a smirk on her face. Emma Whitmore.

“Come on, you big, stupid lizard,” Emma said, holding out the little container. “I know you want it. And I want what you can give me. Your mommy won’t ever have to know.”

He could feel how Lucy tried to resist. She fought the lure of the drug, whatever it was, for longer than Wyatt would have in her place, he was pretty sure. But eventually she gave in, leaning forward and opening her mouth. She was much bigger than Emma, Wyatt realized even as he wished frantically that he could stop her from doing this in the dream. But she swallowed the drug, and then she/Wyatt felt drowsy within seconds. She/Wyatt forced her eyes to stay open this time … to see Emma climbing up onto her with a huge empty hypodermic needle.

Wyatt woke up with a crash, as his dream attempt to fling himself/Lucy backward ended with him flinging himself backward onto the floor. The sharp, searing agony of landing on his back stole his breath for a full minute, enough that he couldn’t even roll onto his side right away.

“Wyatt!” Rufus was next to him, kneeling on the floor. He must have run to turn on the light before he came to check on him, because it certainly hadn’t been on when Wyatt first woke up. “What the hell happened? Are you all right?”

Accepting Rufus’s hand, Wyatt pulled himself up into a sitting position. His back still stung and burned, and he was pretty sure he could feel wetness under the bandage at one injury site, at least. But the horror of the dream still hadn’t faded. “Emma,” he gasped. “Emma is Rittenhouse.” He remembered one of the things Emma had said, and his heart lurched. “So is Lucy’s mother.” That was the woman he had seen, the one who seemed kind of familiar. Carol Preston.

“What-- Emma?” Rufus swore. “She disappeared after the blast, at the same time as the Mothership went missing, but we were never sure… Wait. _Both_ of Lucy’s parents are Rittenhouse?”

“And they took her, and … changed her.” There was a simple explanation for the scales on his shoulders, Wyatt knew that without a doubt now. “And now-- God, Rufus, they’re taking her blood!”

“What?!”

But Wyatt pushed past Rufus, just barely making it to the garbage can in the corner before he threw up everything in his stomach. Shuddering, he stood up, wiping a hand across his face. “I have to find her. I have to stop them.”

“Wyatt, wait.”

Wyatt glanced at his friend, but didn’t wait. He found a clean shirt, pulling it on, and then got dressed the rest of the way before he started to put on his holster. It was hardly comfortable to have anything on his back right now, but he could ignore that for the moment. Everything in his mind had cleared to one goal: get to Lucy.

He checked the ammo in both of his weapons, and then holstered them. Then he found his jacket (at another time he might have wondered when exactly Agent Christopher had gone to his apartment to bring all of his clothes here). Light. He would probably need a light source, too, since it was still dark. But a hand on his arm made him pause as he reached for the flashlight by his bed.

“Wyatt!” It was Rufus, of course. He was staring at Wyatt with a mixture of fear and resolve. “Stop. Just for a second, okay? Think this through. How are you going to save Lucy, singlehandedly? You’re-- you’re still hurt, and it’s the middle of the freaking night!”

“I have to stop them from hurting her,” he said. He was aware there was an edge to his voice. “I _have_ to!”

“Okay,” said Rufus, taking his hand off Wyatt’s arm. “Okay, I guess this is a soulmate thing. But can you at least-- I don’t know, call Agent Christopher first?”

He tried to consider the request objectively. It was not easy to do; everything in him wanted to leave, to go to Lucy now. On the other hand, he had promised Agent Christopher to at least keep her informed. So he nodded, and took out his phone.

Agent Christopher answered after one ring. “Wyatt? What’s going on?”

“I have to go now,” he said, again finding it difficult to take the time it would require to explain this in the clearest way. “I can’t wait any longer. They’re hurting her.”

He heard her take a breath. “Are you getting sick? Or is she?”

“No,” he admitted. “But I have to stop them. They’re drugging her, and taking her blood.” He remembered something else she ought to know. “Carol Preston is Rittenhouse.”

At that, she muttered something he didn’t quite catch and then said, “Thank you for passing that intel on. And thank you for calling. I won’t keep you any longer – but please be as careful as you can.”

“Yeah.” He hung up, and after a moment of hesitation, silenced his phone but put it in his jacket pocket.

“Do you want me to come with you, for part of the way?” Rufus asked.

He turned around, and took a moment to be grateful for Rufus’s support. Lucy was important to him, too, he knew. “No, thanks,” he said, managing what he thought was a smile. “I don’t want to put you in danger. I know this isn’t exactly a safe plan.”

Rufus gave him an anxious smile in return. “Well, maybe Jiya and I can at least track your phone, so we know where to send backup.”

“Not right away,” he said. “Just in case.” Just in case I get myself captured and killed immediately, was what he meant.

“Got it,” said Rufus. “And … good luck.”

Wyatt nodded to him, and then finally there was nothing stopping him from following his goal. He was going to find Lucy now. He’d waited too damn long already.

~~  
Lucy took a while to even begin to calm down after that dream. She was furious, both at Emma for going behind her mother’s back and taking her blood, and at herself for letting her do it. Apparently even a small amount of wild magic (and where had Emma gotten that, anyway?) was still enough to be effective. Lucy had remembered seeing Emma today, just for a few minutes, but of course that dose of wild magic the woman had given her had been enough to make her forget what she’d done – until that night, anyway. Lucy didn’t think she was imagining the lingering pain she felt at a certain location on her left shoulder, either. Obviously Emma was either less skilled at sticking that gigantic needle into her, or she just hadn’t bothered to be careful, unlike Noah.

Another area of her back was hurting right now, Lucy realized, as she finally started to calm down some. That pain had to be… She would have frowned if she could. It had to be from Wyatt, since she didn’t know what would have caused an injury there for her. He had mentioned getting some “cuts and bruises” on his back in the explosion; she wondered how much of an understatement that was, if he was still dealing with pain two weeks later.

She tried to reach out for him then. As happened frustratingly often, she couldn’t really make contact – but this time she could at least get a faint sense of him, of his thoughts. Which showed him to be not only awake, but active and focused. On her. On getting to her.

Wyatt, no, she tried to say to him, as her heart started to pound again. It wasn’t safe for him to come here, as much as she wanted to see him. There were guards, for one thing. Aside from that, there was really nothing he could do for her even if he got past the guards. Sooner or later, if he stuck around (which he would – this was Wyatt, after all), Rittenhouse would find him.

But even if he had heard her just then, he didn’t seem to want to listen. He was still coming. He seemed focused in a way she had never felt or witnessed from him. And she couldn’t deny that part of her – a big part – longed to see him. Maybe they could figure out some way for him to be safe. She still couldn’t imagine any way for her to be able to leave with him, but keeping him safe would be a start.

Some hours passed. There was no question of her going back to sleep now. It was just after dawn when Lucy heard the sound of someone arriving – via the other tunnel into the cave, the one behind her. And then she caught his scent. It was Wyatt!

 _Wyatt!_ she called, moving to face that tunnel as much as she could. She couldn’t turn all the way, but she strained against the binding spells despite knowing all too well how little good it would do.

“Lucy!” He emerged from the tunnel, gaze finding her at once. His eyes widened. He didn’t seem that surprised, though. In fact, the sight of her barely stopped him for five seconds. Once he’d started to take in her dragon form, and once he saw how she was tied down (she felt a clear flash of rage from him), he hurried over to her side, and then laid his hand on her scales as he continued around to her neck and head. “I’m here,” he said, over and over. He pressed his face to the side of hers, and she shut her eyes. “I’m here, Lucy.”

Lucy had never felt the lack of normal human arms so keenly. She wanted to hug him, to take him in her arms, but she couldn’t even wrap a wing around him. Still, as he was continuing to tell her, he was here. They were together. Even being able to touch him, and to receive his touch … it was enough to settle something in her that had been unsettled and aching for two agonizing weeks. _I missed you_ , she told him. _So much._

“I missed you, too,” he said, and when she opened her eyes, she saw him wipe a tear from his face. There was moisture gathering in her eyes, too. When he noticed that, he smiled a little. “Sorry, I, uh, I don’t have a dragon-sized handkerchief or tissue for you.”

 _I’ll survive_ , she said. She hadn’t even been sure she could cry in this form, but with as much emotion as she was feeling right now, it only made sense. She breathed him in, closing the distance between them as much as she could.

Wyatt stroked a hand along the side of her face and above the eye that was closest to him. There was no alarm or disgust or anything like that in his attitude or expression – just relief and joy. And when she bent her head a little further, he leaned forward to kiss her forehead without hesitation. “Wow, you’re really warm,” he said. He didn’t seem to want to stop touching her.

Lucy really, really wanted to return the favor, but she also didn’t want to knock him over. Instead, she just let herself enjoy the sensations of his hand on her skin for several minutes. Eventually, she had to break the moment, though. _So, you don’t seem surprised that I’m not human_ , she said.

“No, I’m not,” he said. His hand was still on her neck. “I had a hunch for a while, before some of the things you said confirmed it. First of all, my soul mark has a dragon as part of it. And, uh … there was another major clue, too.”

_Oh? What was that?_

Now he looked a little uncertain for the first time. “I guess I should just show you.”

_Okay._

She felt the loss when he took his hand away, but still watched relatively patiently as he took off his jacket. He was moving slowly, and she could tell the motions were causing pain. That was even more true as he took off his shirt. She caught a glimpse of what looked like bandages on his back. “Oh – you can see this first,” he said, turning to show her what looked like a large tattoo over his heart.

It wasn’t a tattoo, though. She could see her initials, looking as if they had been drawn in calligraphy with black ink on his skin, with a dark brown dragon weaving itself between the two letters. It was striking, to say the least. Seeing it on him made her feel oddly proud and … possessive, maybe. _Wow_ , she said softly. And then, before she could lose her nerve, she said, _May I?_

He looked confused for a second, and then his expression cleared. “Yeah, of course.”

She leaned down close to him, and then carefully nudged the mark with the end of her snout. His skin was warm, too – and the contact sent a little jolt through them both. “Whoa.”

 _Sorry, did I hurt you?_ she hurried to ask.

“No, not at all,” he said. He smiled, though his eyes were dark.

 _Good. Then you can see if you can find mine, after you show me your other clue_ , she suggested.

“That sounds good,” he told her. Then his smile faded a little. “This was what really sealed the deal, when I saw it and put it together with everything else.” When he turned around, Lucy gasped.

Not only was she right, that several areas of his back were covered in bandages (and one of the spots looked and smelled like it had bled recently), but more attention-grabbing than that were the dark brown scales covering his shoulder blades – scales that were the same color as hers. She felt tears threaten again. _Oh my God_ , she said. _I-- I did that to you. God, I’m sorry, Wyatt!_

“What?” Wyatt turned around quickly. “No, you didn’t, Lucy! Rittenhouse did this to you, right? Turned you into a dragon?”

She nodded once. How could he be so calm about this?

“Then they did this to both of us,” he said firmly. “And it’s not like it’s hurting me in any way.” His expression grew even more grave. “I’m not trapped underground, with Rittenhouse drugging me to steal my blood.”

Lucy was far from convinced of her lack of guilt, but she let it slide for the moment. _So you know about that, too?_

“I just learned tonight,” he said. His fists were clenched. “I saw in your dream, what Emma did.”

She sighed. _She’s not the only one_ , she said heavily. _My mother was the driving force, at first. Until she finally saw that it was hurting me._ Lucy didn’t bother to keep the sarcasm and anger out of her voice.

“I’m so sorry about your mom,” he said, blue eyes full of empathy. “I can only imagine what that must feel like.”

She looked away. Now he wouldn’t be limited by his imagination, she supposed – since they were going to be sharing all their thoughts, emotions, and dreams. She changed the subject. _Hey, you said you weren’t badly hurt in the explosion. But that doesn’t look like just a few cuts._

He shrugged. “It’s not that bad.”

_Then why is there blood on one of those bandages?_

“I’ll be fine,” was his not-really-an-answer. He retrieved his shirt, holster, and jacket, and then grinned up at her. “Now, I showed you mine, so how about I see if you can show me yours?”

Lucy rolled her eyes, but obligingly sat back as far as she could on her back legs. _Go for it._

Wyatt came forward, heading directly for her heart. She wished she could bend her head to follow his progress, but the binding spells on her neck made that impossible. So she just waited, until she felt a similar jolt when he touched the skin above her heart. _You found it, then?_

“Yeah,” he said, and cleared his throat. “It’s, uh, the letters are kind of silver against your scales.”

 _Your initials and … what?_ God, she wanted to see it for herself. Everything about this was unfair.

“It’s...” He trailed off, and she felt his own frustration. “I don’t want to just describe it to you. Let me see if I can do this.”

She was about to ask what he was going to do, when suddenly her perspective shifted. She was no longer looking at a patch of the dull, grayish cave floor – all she could see from where her neck was tied down. Instead, she was looking at a large patch of gleaming bronze scales right in front of her, with a silvery W L written in elegant, stylized calligraphy. There was a simple shield shape that sort of connected the two letters, with a golden star in the middle of the shield. Then she saw Wyatt’s hand reach out and trace the shapes, at the same time that she felt it on her own skin. She shivered, and then she was seeing out of her own eyes again. After a beat, she moved forward a little, so she was closer to him. _Thank you_ , she said quietly.

 _You’re welcome_ , he replied, in the same way as she’d spoken. He stayed where he was.

 _What do you think the symbol means?_ she asked. _I mean, the shield isn’t a hard one. But what about the star?_

“Well,” said Wyatt, switching to spoken words again, “I guess it could be related to the logo for the Army. Otherwise, I don’t know.”

 _Hmm._ Lucy yawned and stretched her wings as far as she could. _Well, your dragon isn’t a mystery, at least._

“No,” he agreed. She could feel that he had been watching the motion of her wings with a certain amount of awe. “But it doesn’t have to be just that literal, from what I’ve read. And you know, dragons are a symbol of power, wealth, wisdom, and good luck, in a lot of cultures.”

Lucy laughed, making sure he could tell she was impressed and pleased at the evidence of his research. Then she sighed. _Yeah, that’s definitely how Rittenhouse sees them. Us. Me._

Wyatt’s amusement and pride faded at that, too. “We’re going to figure out--” he started to say, before they both froze. Lucy heard someone coming. No, it was more than one person.

Wyatt reacted a second later. He swore. _I should hide_ , he said, staring around the cave. There were not a lot of promising hiding spots.

She thought quickly. Then she raised her wings again. _Um, how about here? Will that work?_

He looked at her, and then gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. _Let’s try it._ A second later, he was climbing up onto her, as carefully as he could, using her front leg to start. Then, just as he had made it onto her back so she could fold one wing just as carefully over him, three people came into the cavern, from the same tunnel Wyatt had entered.

“How long ago were the border spells tripped?” Emma was asking some guy Lucy didn’t recognize, as Lucy’s mother gazed around the room.

“Not more than ten minutes,” the man said.

“Ten minutes?” Emma raised her eyebrows. “You didn’t think to alert us right away?”

“We were checking the rest of the perimeter first,” he said defensively. “There were no non-magical signs of an intruder.”

Carol spoke up. “To be fair to Robert, the magical signs are not the clearest either. Wouldn’t you agree, Emma?”

The redhead spent a few seconds looking around the inside of the cavern before nodding once. “I guess so. It’s like … there are traces here, but nothing conclusive.”

Lucy was glad only Wyatt would be able to tell how fast her heart was beating. None of the Rittenhouse mages she knew about had done much magic inside the cave since she was first captured, she thought just then. She wondered if their confusion right now was connected to that fact in any way.

 _I read that it’s actually hard to use normal magic, spells and whatever, on a dragon_ , Wyatt said. _So maybe you being here is enough to make it hard for them to do their detecting spells. If that’s what they’re trying to do. Although you do have those binding spells on you, so..._

He sounded embarrassed then, as if he was talking about something he had no right to be talking about. She gave him a mental nudge. _Hey, you’ve actually read more on this topic recently than I have. So yes, that could be what’s going on._

The trio of humans, meanwhile, had completed their search of the cavern. By the expressions on their faces, they were not satisfied with the results. “Maybe it was some kind of animal,” Robert said.

Emma scoffed. “Can you think of any animal in the world that would be stupid enough to move _toward_ a dragon?”

“Also, that border spell was set up to detect humans, not animals,” Lucy’s mother added. She put one hand on her hip, as she glanced at Lucy and then toward the tunnel entrance. “We’d better search in a fairly wide radius outside, in case someone came in, saw Lucy, and ran off.”

Robert nodded at that. “I’ll get the team on it right away, ma’am.”

“Good,” said Lucy’s mother.

“I’ll join you, if you don’t mind, Rob,” said Emma, with a hard smile that made it clear that she didn’t care whether he minded or not.

Wyatt let out a telepathic curse, as he remembered that Rufus had said he and Jiya were going to track his phone. _If they already started following me here…_

She resisted the urge to shift her wings in agitation, choosing to move her tail instead. _We’d better hope they haven’t sent anyone yet. But I think my mother has it set up so that no one can use a cell phone on this property, at least. So Rufus won’t have been able to track you all the way here, anyway._

He was a little relieved to hear that. _I wonder how far that radius extends_ , he said.

Lucy didn’t know, but she knew they both hoped it was far enough to keep anyone from stumbling into a situation they wouldn’t be prepared for at all. In fact, Lucy was about to point out to Wyatt that _he_ had barely been more prepared to come here, even with what he’d been able to learn from her before he got here. But then her mother interrupted that thought.

“There’s something different about you this morning, Lucy,” she said, looking up at her face from in front of her. “I can’t say what, but it’s there.”

Lucy made no response, other than to lie down (taking care not to jostle Wyatt any more than absolutely necessary).

“Well, whatever it is, it looks like a good change,” her mother said, with a smile. “Maybe Wanda’s suggestions are helping already. I’m glad.”

Lucy kept herself from rolling her eyes again with great effort. At least she could be pretty sure her mother would never guess the real reason in a million years … as long as they kept Wyatt hidden. Which she wasn’t sure was going to work for any long-term period of time.

 _We’ll figure it out_ , said Wyatt, although she could tell he wasn’t totally confident.

Eventually, Lucy’s mother left, which meant no one else was in the cavern with them. She exhaled, relaxing further, and raised her wing. _You want to get down now?_

Wyatt sounded a tiny bit embarrassed as he said, _Actually, would you-- uh, would you mind if I closed my eyes for a little bit? It’s still pretty early, and you’re … surprisingly comfortable._

Lucy laughed and lowered her wing most of the way again, while leaving him some space to shift around. _Go ahead. Maybe I can get in a nap before breakfast, too._ There was something about what she had just said that was problematic for Wyatt, but she was suddenly tired enough that she decided not to worry about it for now. The most important thing was that they were together. She felt her soulmate take off his jacket and set it down on her back as a pillow. He slipped off his holster, as well. As soon as he was lying down again, she settled her wing over him and closed her eyes. She was asleep within a minute.

~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you're curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army#/media/File:US_Army_logo.svg


	4. Chapter 4

~~  
Wyatt came awake slowly some time later, though he didn’t open his eyes right away. He was supremely comfortable, wherever he was, and so much more at peace than he had been for weeks. Which was because of Lucy.

And now he remembered why the surface he was lying on was moving up and down slowly, at the pace of huge dragon lungs inhaling and exhaling. He’d fallen asleep on top of Lucy, under the wing she’d used to keep him hidden from her captors. He smiled to himself. Probably, it was weird that he didn’t find this weirder than he did. Of course he would trade the chance to sleep under Lucy’s actual wing for the chance to share a bed with her, but for now, this was good.

A moment later, Lucy stirred. It felt like she started to get to her feet, but she froze when Wyatt put his hands out to brace himself against her. _Oh! Wyatt, I’m sorry, I forgot you were there_ , she said quickly. Her wing tightened over him, which helped keep him in place. _Are you all right?_

_I’m fine, totally fine_ , he assured her. The wing relaxed, but she didn’t lift it away.

Which turned out to be a good thing, because that was when Lucy’s breakfast delivery arrived. At first, Wyatt was left blind, covered as he was by a folded dragon wing. But when Lucy sensed his desire to be able to see what was going on, she did what he had done for her a few hours ago: allowed him to see out of her eyes. Kind of reluctantly.

Wyatt understood her reluctance when he saw what she was being served: two men had wheeled in two large wheelbarrows, each with three whole, dead goats piled up inside. Right. Because she was currently a very large carnivore.

Despite her vague embarrassment, Lucy was hungry. Really hungry, in fact. She moved forward as far as she could without pulling at the binding spells, just as the first guy came almost to within her reach.

“Good morning, Lucy,” he said. Wyatt recognized him in a flash, and fought back a wave of renewed fury. Lucy’s ex-fiance was in on this, too? “You seem more alert this morning.”

Wyatt felt Lucy’s chagrin at that. She was not supposed to be making it so obvious that she was no longer depressed. But it was too late to pretend otherwise – or at least, too late to do more than tone it down. She lowered her head, feigning less interest.

Noah seemed to buy it for the most part. “Well, anyway. Here you go.”

He actually put each animal into Lucy’s jaws, one at a time. Lucy was embarrassed again, but Wyatt told her, _Hey, it’s not like you have hands right now. And besides, you’re tied down._

_Yeah, but I could still pick it up myself, with my teeth._ Unspoken but present in her thoughts was the fact that she had been doing that, before her despair at everything that had happened to her had gotten to be too much for her to want to make even that effort.

She ate all of the animals that Noah had brought her, in a pretty short amount of time. As her hunger faded, Wyatt realized that his hadn’t, oddly enough. He hadn’t eaten anything since dinner last night.

_Oh, my God._ Lucy swallowed her last bite, and he felt her dismay. _Wyatt, how the hell are you going to eat anything? They’re not going to bring any-- any human food in here._

Very quietly, he reached into the pocket of his jacket, and sighed in relief. _I have a protein bar in here_ , he informed her. Thank God for some good planning at some point in the past, since he was sure he hadn’t spared a thought for something trivial like food for himself late last night. _But, uh, you’re right that that’s not going to be enough for more than one meal._

She was clearly upset by this new problem. _You can’t just stay here and starve_ , she said, lying down in a way that managed not to jostle him. _And if you leave to find food, that will trip the border spell again. God, Wyatt, this is--_

_A real problem_ , he put in gently, _but I bet we can figure something out. Also, I’m not going to starve if I skip a couple of meals._

_I know, but--_

_Lucy._ He reached up to stroke a hand on the underside of her wing, and felt her pleased, faint shiver in response. _Don’t worry about it. I don’t regret coming here, and I won’t, even if I have to go hungry for a little while_. He chuckled briefly, taking care to keep it private for the two of them and not out loud. _Besides, it’s kind of my fault. I didn’t exactly make a detailed plan of action before tracking you down._ But the memory of what had made him need to come to her so urgently got rid of any laughter.

Lucy followed his train of thought. She sighed. After a long pause, she said, _If I start looking healthier, my mother is going to start taking my blood again. Last time it was just Emma, sneaking some for herself._

Wyatt resolved to take that up with Emma as soon as he could. He had already learned from Lucy’s thoughts what Rittenhouse wanted with dragon blood, and the idea still made him ill. The fact that him being here might make Lucy seem healthy enough to start up that disgusting violation again also made him feel queasy.

It was a relief when Noah and the other guy finally left, though. That meant Wyatt could at least get down off Lucy’s back and eat his protein bar. It wasn’t really a substitute for a full meal, but it was much better than nothing.

Then when he put on his shoulder holster again, something else occurred to him: the motion of putting it on hadn’t made his back hurt at all. He frowned and stretched his arms in a way that always pulled at the healing shrapnel wounds. Again, there was no pain. “Huh.”

_Let me take a look_ , said Lucy, moving closer. _I don’t know if I-- if I can take off the bandages, but I’ll see what I can do._

It was slightly annoying to take off the holster again right away, but Wyatt did so, and also slipped off his shirt (again, without any pulling or discomfort from his back). He turned his back to her. “See anything?”

He felt his breath on her back as she leaned in. _Well, I don’t smell any recent blood, except … I mean, I think there’s some on one of the bandages, but none on you._ She nudged him so that he turned partway to face her. _Would you, um, be all right with me trying to take them off for you?_

“With your teeth, or your claws?” he asked, genuinely curious.

Seeming encouraged by his lack of worry, she said, _I think I’d try with my teeth first. And obviously I’d be careful._

He smiled and touched her face. “I know you would.” Even before they were soulmates, he’d already trusted her for a long time. _Give it a try._

After he had turned back around, Wyatt stood still while Lucy examined his bandages studiously. Then she said, _All right, here goes._ After that, he felt a gentle tug on the largest remaining bandage. No teeth came into contact with him, so she tried it again, pulling harder this time. It came off. She dropped it, and then he felt a little jolt of surprise from her. “What?”

_Just-- let me get the rest off, first_ , was her response. It didn’t take her too long, and of course she didn’t hurt him at all. Once she was done, she let him see what she was seeing:

His back still had the same pattern of scales over his shoulders – but there was almost no trace of any injury. There looked to be two small, faint scars, where the two deepest punctures had been (one of them was on the area covered by the scales, as Agent Christopher had pointed out before). That was it.

_Whoa_ , said Wyatt. That was surprising, for sure. Though not in a bad way.

_Yeah, I don’t--_ She stopped, and then Wyatt was seeing out of his own eyes again. _Maybe it could be something to do with, um, you having been … in contact with me for a sustained period of time._

Wyatt thought back to his research into soulmates. They were supposed to stay healthier when they were together, and there were a few stories of one gravely ill soulmate getting well again when they spent time close to the other member of the pair. _That could be it_ , he agreed. He put his shirt back on, and then looked at the discarded bandages. “We’re going to need a place to hide these, since I’m going to guess there isn’t a convenient garbage can in this cave.”

_Not as far as I know_ , said Lucy.

“I guess I could try sneaking back to the entrance to the tunnel and burying them,” he said, frowning. “I know, it’s bad for the environment either way, but I don’t think there’s enough loose dirt in here.”

_And you don’t really want to keep them in your jacket pocket?_ Lucy’s voice was wry. _I get that. I guess if you want to take them out of here, just-- just be really careful. I know you know that already._

Wyatt gave her a grin. “Who, me? I’m always careful.” And even as he turned toward the tunnel, he knew he would have practically felt her eyeroll even without their soulmate bond.

No one showed any sign of noticing him during any part of his quick, stealthy trip to the tunnel entrance and back. Lucy was clearly relieved, despite her assurance. He still hated to see how little she could turn around or move – which made him think of something. “Hey, any idea how a normal, non-magical knife would do against those binding spells?”

She blinked. _Uh, nope. I guess there’s nothing stopping you from trying, though, if you have one._

“I do.” He pulled out his Swiss Army knife and bent down next to the ropes on her neck. But unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, the blade didn’t seem to make any impression at all. He sighed, and put the knife away. “Sorry, Lucy.”

_It was worth a shot_ , she said, though she was clearly disappointed.

“No, I mean...” He rubbed his hands over his face. “Even though I knew I needed to come here as soon as I could, I still should’ve planned better.” If he were honest with himself, there was a good chance that he wasn’t going to be able to get her out of here. Not unless he could persuade some Rittenhouse mage to help them, and that was pretty unlikely.

Lucy stood up and stretched, as much as she was able. _Well, Noah seems pretty unhappy about me being kept here like this. He might be persuadable._

“I’d like to persuade him of a few things,” Wyatt muttered, jaw clenched. “He was supposed to be engaged to you, wasn’t he? And now he’s drinking your _blood_.”

_I’m not saying I think he’s a great guy, or that I’m not upset with him_ , Lucy said. _But he seems like he might be the one Rittenhouse member involved in all of this who’s the least … brainwashed. The least like a true believer._

That included her mother, Wyatt could tell. He went over to her and leaned against her side, right behind her front leg. “Well, I’ll keep that in mind,” he told her. “But persuadable or not, I’m still going to make sure he knows exactly how much of a dick he is.”

_Hmm_ , said Lucy, not sounding particularly bothered by that idea.

~~  
Rufus had just allowed himself to think that maybe this whole thing could actually work, when the blinking light on the screen that showed the location of Wyatt’s phone just … disappeared.

“What the hell?” Jiya muttered, attempting to recover the signal with a series of keystrokes. But the screen still showed no signal from Wyatt.

“Okay.” Rufus reminded himself that panicking would be worse than useless here. “Okay, that doesn’t have to mean any kind of disaster, necessarily. Maybe he dropped his phone into some water or...” he couldn’t think of anything else that wasn’t the result of a disaster. “Anyway, what’s there, where his signal was before we lost it?”

“Checking the surrounding area now,” Jiya said. She fought off a yawn, and then frowned. “Sorry.”

“Hey.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t apologize. It’s insanely early, and you’re amazing.”

She smiled up at him, and then turned her attention back to the monitor. “Hmm. There’s not much. Not anywhere nearby, anyway. Although – ooh, that’s probably not a coincidence.”

“What?”

“Lucy’s mom’s house is only about twelve miles away.”

Rufus took a breath. “Yeah, that’s definitely not a coincidence.”

At that moment, they were both interrupted by the sound of someone shuffling into the computer area. “What’s going on? What are you two doing up?” said Connor, yawning widely.

“You … might want some coffee before we answer that,” said Rufus. “It’s a little complicated.”

Jiya raised an eyebrow at him, and said, “Wyatt went off to find Lucy, so we were tracking his phone until we lost the signal.”

“Guess it wasn’t that complicated,” Rufus mumbled.

Connor blinked. “Wyatt did what? Alone?!” He glared at Rufus. “And you didn’t try to stop him?”

“Hey, it would have taken a lot more than just one non-soldier to stop him,” said Rufus, crossing his arms and trying to ignore his own guilt despite the truth of what he’d just said. “Besides, it was a soulmate thing. He could tell Lucy was in trouble. Also, I did get him to call Agent Christopher before he left, at least.”

Connor looked a little less outraged. “Ah. Well, I suppose that might have been the best anyone could do, short of trying to get the drop on an irate Delta Force master sergeant long enough to knock him unconscious.”

“Which we weren’t going to do,” said Rufus.

“But it turns out that the area where we lost his signal is only twelve miles away from Lucy’s mom’s house,” Jiya said. “Which seems especially relevant, since Wyatt found out that Lucy’s mom is Rittenhouse, too.”

That stunned Connor for a good thirty seconds. He sat down heavily in a nearby chair. “Does Denise know this, as well?”

“Yeah, Wyatt told her,” said Rufus with a sigh. He had a strong feeling that Wyatt knew more about the details of Lucy’s situation than he had passed on (though hearing that those Rittenhouse creeps were taking her blood was mind-bendingly horrible enough). Still, he hated to think what Lucy had been going through – and he _really_ hoped Wyatt had managed to avoid being captured. Though the signs in favor of that idea weren’t great.

“Well, I suggest you update Denise about where Wyatt’s signal was last seen,” said Connor. “Maybe she can start to organize a rescue operation.”

“And we can also try to see if we can access a topographical database of the area,” said Jiya. “Since Wyatt said Lucy was underground.”

Rufus took out his phone to call Agent Christopher. They weren’t totally at a loss here, he told himself. They could do this. After all, what was tracking down two members of their team in the present, compared with all the crazy obstacles they’d had to face in the past?

~~  
A more immediate problem than the lack of human food presented itself a few hours later: Wyatt was thirsty. He and Lucy had been talking silently together, catching each other up on a few more details from the past two weeks. Wyatt had tried not to think about his dry throat for a while, but the effort was useless. It was all from him, he was pretty sure; Lucy seemed to be able to get most of the moisture she needed from her food.

_Wyatt_ , Lucy said suddenly, her tone severe, _you’re getting thirsty. Don’t bother trying to pretend you’re not. We’re in each other’s heads._

He sighed and shrugged. _You’re right. I am. I just… It’s just more evidence of how I did not plan this well._

She nudged him, where he was leaning against her side. _Well, as I understand it, you didn’t have much of a choice to wait. I probably would have done the same thing in your situation._

She had a point. Still. He stood up. _I guess I need to go looking for a subterranean stream, or something._

_Try the other tunnel_ , she suggested. _From what I remember – which isn’t much – it’s a lot longer, and there might be some side tunnels. Just don’t get lost._

He walked around so that he could look her in the eye. _I won’t_ , he promised. _One very good thing about this whole soulmate thing: I can always find my way back to you._

She leaned down close, and he could tell she would be smiling if she could. _That was a very good line, Master Sergeant._

_Well, it has the benefit of being true_ , he said, smiling back at her. He put a hand on her face for a moment and then stepped away. _I’ll be right back._

Lucy was right that it didn’t take long going in the other direction for him to find some side tunnels. Of course, there was next to no natural light, but his phone still had plenty of battery (he thought anxiously of Rufus, and hoped there was no one currently walking into a situation they couldn’t possibly be prepared for). He could use that as a flashlight.

Even with his instinctive sense of Lucy’s location, Wyatt didn’t want to make it harder to find his way back. So he picked up a rock and made a small scratch mark, near the cave floor, at the entrance of each side tunnel he checked out. A large number were dead ends. Some got too narrow for him to want to keep going. Finally, though, he found one that led to a little pool of water, with an even tinier stream leading into and out of it. The water was clear, with no plant life or animal life that he could see. As soon as he was as sure as he could be that it was safe to drink, Wyatt bent down and did so, choosing the running water where it entered the pool to scoop into his mouth.

After he was satisfied, Wyatt used some more of the water to wash his face and hands. The pool was a bit small to consider trying for a bath (and plus, there was the fact that he didn’t know if some Rittenhouse guard might wander in at any point). He’d have to look for another water source in the cave for that, if they ended up staying here a whole lot longer. Not that he hadn’t gone longer without a shower in worse conditions before.

He was almost back to the cavern where Lucy was when a wave of dizziness hit out of nowhere. He only barely caught himself by leaning against the tunnel wall instead of falling to the ground. Breathing slowly and shallowly, Wyatt shut his eyes and waited. He didn’t know how long it took for it to pass, but it did pass.

When he was able to stand up straight again, Wyatt tried to take stock. He didn’t think it was the water. His stomach felt fine – and besides, most things that could have made him sick from unclean water wouldn’t have hit quite that fast. Plus… _Lucy?_

She was recovering from something, too. _I’m okay_ , she told him, though she sounded a little shaky. _You?_

_I think so, yeah_ , he told her. _I’m on my way back._

She didn’t say anything in response, but he could feel her relief. So he picked up the pace.

As soon as he got back to her cavern, Wyatt hurried to Lucy’s side. She was breathing hard, and lying down. He laid his hands on her scales, feeling them both calm down at the contact. _What was that?_ he asked. _Any ideas?_

_I wish I knew_ , she said. _All I know is that one second I was perfectly fine, and then the next…_ She twitched her wings. _The next, it was like I was back as my human self, but there was still this huge, heavy dragon body overlaid all around me. Weighing me down. I could only sort of move, and the dragon moved whenever I did_. She shook her head. _It was really, really weird and disturbing._

He let out a breath. _Yeah, it sounds like it._ He wished either of them had any idea of what it meant.

They had only sat together for a short while before Lucy heard the sounds of a number of people getting closer, from both tunnels. Wyatt scrambled back up to his previous hiding place, this time taking out his gun before Lucy covered him with her wing. Obviously he wasn’t going to shoot if there was any chance the bullet would hit Lucy, but he needed to be ready.

This time, it was Emma, Carol, Benjamin Cahill, Noah, and three guards (one of whom was Robert, the same guy from last time). All of them looked tense.

“None of them made their way here, clearly,” said Carol, after they’d all looked around the cavern. “As I said: our preparations for this worked just as they were meant to work.”

“That does seem to be the case,” said Cahill. “But we can’t underestimate that Christopher woman. If she wasn’t convinced by our ruse, she’ll send more people.”

Emma shrugged. “If she does, we’ll do the same thing to those ones – and if they don’t fall for it, we’ll take them out.”

“I still think we’re ignoring the main issue here,” said Noah. “How did that team even know where to start looking? This place was supposed to be impossible to find.”

Frowning, Cahill agreed. “He has a point, Carol. All our efforts to make this whole area undetectable – and some team of government thugs just happens to wander within a mile of here? We need to find out how they knew.”

Lucy’s agitation was growing, and Wyatt couldn’t blame her. None of the Rittenhouse members here had given enough details for them to know what had happened to Agent Christopher’s team just now, exactly. Although Emma’s comment made it sound like they might not have been killed … yet.

“We have a tracker on one of them,” Robert reported. “So we can always send someone to their location, to do some recon and listen in.”

“Or do more than that, if it seems necessary,” Emma added.

“Send someone in,” said Carol after a pause. “To listen in only, at this point. If we start assassinating government agents right now, that’s only going to draw attention where we don’t want it.”

The others didn’t offer any criticism of that plan, though it seemed like Emma wasn’t all that happy. Wyatt reflected again that the woman was obviously an excellent actor and liar, since no one at Mason Industries had ever suspected she was so violent.

“And Robert, I’d like to increase the guards around the perimeter of the cave, at least for the next twenty-four hours,” Lucy’s mother went on. She glanced at Lucy, who Wyatt could tell was glaring at her. “Just in case.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Robert.

After Emma, Robert, and the two other guards had left, Carol sighed and turned to Cahill. “Well. That was more exciting than any of us – except maybe Emma – wanted.”

“Yes,” Cahill agreed. But then he smiled as he looked at Lucy. “On the other hand, Lucy’s looking well today. Perhaps we can plan another gathering of the elders in the next few days.”

Lucy, more than likely fueled by Wyatt’s own rage as well as hers, let out a snarl even as she backed away.

Neither of her parents seemed bothered by their daughter’s reaction. Instead, Carol just said, “Perhaps we can. Noah, what do you think? Is she looking healthy enough?”

Noah’s gaze scanned over Lucy’s body. He looked distinctly unhappy. “She does seem better,” he said in a low voice.

“Good. Then we’ll start to plan a gathering.”

As soon as the sounds of their footsteps in the tunnel faded, Wyatt climbed out and down off Lucy. “Okay, no matter what happens, we’re _not_ letting them take your blood again,” he said, keeping himself from shouting with some difficulty.

_But how are we supposed to stop them?_ Lucy asked. There was despair in her tone, which he hated to hear.

“I’ve got a few ideas,” said Wyatt, gesturing to his holster. “We’ll have the element of surprise on our side, at least.”

_Wyatt, there are more than a dozen of them!_ Now she sounded horrified. _There’s no way the element of surprise and just your guns are enough, if I can’t help you!_

Those weren’t good odds, that was true. He was pacing back and forth in front of her as he thought. _Then we’ll have to recruit Noah first. Like, the next time we see him._

Lucy moved restlessly, glancing toward the tunnel where Noah would be coming back soon enough, with her lunch. _All right. But he never comes alone, and-- and you’re not really at full strength, since you’ve hardly eaten anything today._

_I can make it work_ , he said. _I’ll follow them after they leave, and see if I can get him alone._

She was relieved to hear that part of his plan, but still anxious. _Don’t forget that he’s a mage_ , she reminded him. _Even if there is some kind of magic dampening effect from me being here, we don’t know how much that does, or how close you have to be for it to work._

Wyatt nodded. _I’ll remember._

It was only another hour before Noah and the other guy came in with more slaughtered animals for Lucy. This time they were sheep, Wyatt saw as he watched through Lucy’s eyes. He was hungry enough by now that the scent of fresh blood almost made him want to eat raw mutton – almost. But he ignored his hunger as best he could. He had to stay focused.

It actually helped when Lucy had eaten her fill, since he didn’t have to feel their combined need for food anymore. And it really did seem like Noah was regretting his involvement in this whole thing, maybe. He was quiet while Lucy ate, although he kept looking at her, at her binding spells, and then away.

Once the two men had exited the cavern, Wyatt crept down from Lucy’s back quietly. He touched her face as he passed by, both galvanized and rattled by her worry for him. Noting this, she took a deep breath and let it out. _Be careful._

_I will._ He could do this. He had to be able to do this.

Wyatt smiled grimly as he followed the Rittenhouse delivery men into the tunnel. Noah was behind the other guy, seeming lost in thought as he pushed the empty wheelbarrow – and used what must have been a spell of some kind to light his way. That was Wyatt’s guess, anyway, since he didn’t know how else to explain the tiny ball of light hovering just above Noah’s wheelbarrow. Although he didn’t know if the other guy was a mage, but there was a ball of light above his, as well. Either way, that answered part of the question about magic use near Lucy: it was at least somewhat possible, at this distance. Wyatt was going to have to approach this just right. But at least he wasn’t going to have to sneak past someone else to get to Noah.

He stuck several yards behind them for a while, doing his best not to dislodge any loose stones or do anything else that might make a sound that would cue them in that they were being followed. Neither of the men showed any signs that they had noticed.

Finally, by the dim light of Noah’s spell, Wyatt saw his chance. There was a narrow entrance to the next chamber ahead, which the men would have to go through single file. If he could manage it, Wyatt might be able to get to Noah before he’d even pushed the wheelbarrow through – and without the other guy being able to see what was happening.

Noah was standing quietly while the other guy went through the opening. Wyatt crept forward. When the first guy was through, just as Noah started to push the wheelbarrow through ahead of himself, Wyatt jammed the barrel of his gun into Noah’s back. “Don’t make a sound,” he said into the guy’s ear, “and don’t try any magic tricks, either. Nod once if you understand.”

Noah nodded once. He put his hands up.

“Now, tell your friend that you forgot you needed to do something for Lucy, and that he can go on without you.” Noah started to turn his head toward Wyatt at that, but Wyatt pushed the gun between his ribs even harder. He could feel how closely Lucy was following this whole process, while trying not to distract him at a key moment. “Do it.”

“Hey, are you coming?” the other man asked. Wyatt made sure he wouldn’t be immediately visible if the guy looked through the opening.

“Uh, yeah, I just realized I forgot I need to … to do one more check in the main cavern before I leave,” Noah called. “Make sure the dragon is healthy enough for tomorrow.”

There was a brief pause, and then the other guy said, “All right. I’m not waiting around for you, though.”

“That’s fine,” Noah said quickly. “I know the way.”

The other guy muttered something Wyatt didn’t quite catch, about creepy dark caves, and then called back, “Fine.”

Wyatt waited until there were no more sounds from the other guy. Then he said. “All right, doc. Turn around slowly, and walk back into the other chamber we just left.”

Noah did so, keeping his hands raised. Once they had gotten into the other chamber, he stopped. “Now what?”

“Now,” said Wyatt, allowing his voice to get a little bit louder so that Noah would have no doubt about his feelings on the subject, “we’re both going to go back to Lucy. See, there is something you need to do for her. You need to take those goddamn binding spells off her, so she doesn’t have to be stuck with a needle for you Rittenhouse _parasites_ to drink her blood!”

Noah sighed and turned around, cautiously. “I thought it was you,” he said. His expression was resigned. “Wyatt, was it? The soldier who threatened me while I tried to save your friend’s life in an abandoned warehouse that one time?”

“That’s me,” said Wyatt, although he didn't remember actually doing anything threatening to him while he was patching Rufus up. “And you’re the dick who was engaged to Lucy, but still decided it was okay to be part of capturing her, turning her into a mythical creature, and then drugging her over and over so you could get whatever you think her blood will give you.”

The man swallowed. “Immortality. The legends say dragon blood can pass on their immortality to those who drink it.”

“Huh.” Wyatt still hadn't thought much about the implications of Lucy possibly not having to die. But now wasn't the time. He moved the gun closer to Noah. “Come on, let’s go.”

Heaving another sigh, Noah turned back around and started forward. They were both silent for a few dozen yards. Then Noah cleared his throat. “It’s dark in here. Can I make a light, or is that against the rules?”

“No need.” With one hand, Wyatt pulled out his phone and successfully turned on the flashlight function with one hand. Then he put it in his shirt pocket, which sort of worked.

His companion didn’t protest. He did, however, ask, “Are you the reason those government agents were able to come so close to finding this place, then?”

“I guess so,” said Wyatt. He wasn’t going to divulge a lot of details. There was no reason to trust that Noah wouldn’t try to escape and pass them on to his Rittenhouse bosses, after all.

The other man seemed to think about this for a while. After they went around a corner and were back on a straighter part of the path, he said, “How did _you_ find this place?”

“None of your business.” He didn’t know exactly what Rittenhouse would do with the information that he was Lucy’s soulmate if they found out, but he knew both he and Lucy would prefer to keep that a mystery from them. “Keep walking.”

Noah did as ordered. But as he was climbing up a short flight of carved stone stairs, he slipped on the top step. Wyatt moved to catch him quickly, somehow managing not to drop his weapon or lose his phone in the process. The man grabbed Wyatt’s arm, and Wyatt felt something cold travel from his grip all the way toward his heart. Swearing, he shoved Noah away so that he fell onto the level ground at the top of the stairs. He aimed the gun at his head. “What the hell was that?” At least the cold was fading quickly. “I said no magic tricks!”

But Noah was staring at him with awe and dismay on his face. “You-- you two are soulmates. You’re Lucy’s soulmate!”

Wyatt said nothing. Apparently there was no reason to confirm or deny.

“This-- this is crazy,” the doctor said to himself, getting to his feet and dusting off his jeans. “Soulmates.”

“Yeah, because that’s the craziest thing about this whole situation,” Wyatt said with a glare. He pointed ahead of them with his gun. “Let’s go!”

Noah didn’t say anything else for the entire trip back to Lucy’s cavern. When they arrived, he looked up at Lucy’s face. “So. This guy is your soulmate?”

Lucy, who had been straining anxiously toward Wyatt, met the other man’s gaze for long enough to nod. Then she switched her attention back to Wyatt. _Are you all right? He did something to you._

_Yeah, I guess it was just some kind of spell to try to figure out how I found you,_ he said. _Didn’t hurt._ Keeping his gun trained on Lucy’s ex-fiance with one hand, he turned off the flashlight setting on his phone and put it back in the correct pocket. “So,” he said out loud, “can you do something about these binding spells, or not?”

Noah raised his eyebrows. “And what are you going to do to me if I say I can’t help?”

“I don’t know,” Wyatt said, taking a step closer. His voice hardened. “Maybe I’ll knock you out and drag you into a side tunnel, and stuff you in a hole that’s too small for you to get out of. See how you like being stuck underground. Or maybe I’ll just make sure you lose the same amount of blood as you Rittenhouse assholes have been stealing from Lucy. Give or take a few liters.”

_Wyatt_ , Lucy warned, even as Noah gulped. _Try not to terrify him too much. We need him to be able to help us._

“I’ll see what I can do,” Noah was saying, “but I do have to ask: what are you going to do if she gets free from the binding spells? She’s still … well, just like you said. She’s still in a space that’s too small for her to be able to get out.”

“One problem at a time,” said Wyatt, glancing at Lucy as he did so. “At least she won’t be helpless when the rest of your cult comes calling.”

The doctor winced and then nodded. “Got it.” Without being asked/ordered to, he got to work, starting with the bands around Lucy’s neck.

Wyatt (and Lucy, as well as she could from her perspective) watched the guy working for several minutes. And kept watching. It didn’t seem like anything at all was happening. He sighed and rolled his eyes. “I swear, if you’re just wasting our time...”

“Hey, man, it took six of us to put these on in the first place,” Noah snapped. He was sweating, Wyatt saw. “So it’s going to take me a while to undo that amount of work, okay?”

“Fine.” Wyatt had lowered his weapon by this point, but he wasn’t planning on putting it away. Not while there was still every possibility that--

“You know, I never wanted all this,” Noah said, breaking the silence as he continued to work. “I never wanted to be a ranking member of Rittenhouse, or be part of Carol’s crazy ideas about bringing the myth of the Rittenhouse dragon into reality.”

Wyatt exchanged a glance with Lucy. _I think he’s telling the truth_ , she said.

_Not that that means much_ , he said with a scoff. “Well, if all that’s true, then good for you,” he said out loud. “Though from where I’m standing, it sure looks to me like your principles did absolutely nothing to stop you from any of this, anyway. So I’m not exactly impressed.”

The man sighed, taking a second to wipe his forehead with his shirtsleeve. “I know,” he said. “I know it doesn’t mean anything unless I do something about it. That’s what I’m trying to say: this is me, doing something about it. I’m not going to try anything underhanded here. I want to help.”

Well, he was definitely saying all the right things. Which was something. “Then we’ll give you the chance to prove that,” was all he said.

It took what seemed like ages, but finally, Noah gave a tug at the cords around Lucy’s throat, and they came off and disappeared. Lucy let out a long sigh, and told Wyatt to thank him. “She says...” But he just couldn’t find it in himself to be too grateful yet, so he said, “She says that’s much better.”

Noah smiled a little, looking between the two of them. “She talks to you?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I’m going to keep working at this, Lucy,” he said, looking at her again. “Which one do you want me to tackle next?”

Over the course of the next hour and a half, at Lucy’s direction, Noah got rid of the binding spells on her wings, then her front legs, then her back legs, and her tail. By the time he was done, he looked completely exhausted but genuinely pleased. He looked amazed and even happier when Lucy stretched out her wings to their full span. _Thank him now, please, Wyatt_ , said Lucy. _He did what he said he would – and this is so much better than it was already._

“Thank you,” said Wyatt, managing not to sound grudging, he thought.

Nodding and wiping his forehead again, Noah said, “You’re welcome. Uh, I don’t suppose you happen to know of some water I could drink?”

“I do, actually.” He looked at Lucy. I’ll be right back. “You’ll have to come with me, though. It’s in a side tunnel.”

_Stay alert_ , said Lucy, as they started to leave the cavern. _I really don’t think he’s going to try anything, but…_

_Well, he might when he figures out what I’m going to do_ , Wyatt said. At her alarm, he added, _What? There are going to be questions if he shows up now, and then they find you without any binding spells. It’s to protect him, too. I’m not going to cause him any permanent harm._

Lucy wasn’t happy about his idea, but she didn’t have any arguments with his reasoning. _You could try to explain the situation to him first_ , she suggested. _He’d see your point._

_Maybe._

Wyatt and Noah walked down the same path Wyatt had gone this morning, without the detours that Wyatt had gone through in the process of finding the stream. They took turns bending down to drink their fill. When they had finished, Noah met Wyatt’s eyes and took a deep breath. “So, what are you going to do with me?”

“What do you mean?” He very carefully did not move his hand toward his holster. Maybe he could let this play out like Lucy had said.

“I mean, you probably don’t trust me fully yet – and I can’t blame you or Lucy for that,” Noah said. “Also, even if you did, I’m going to be the first person under suspicion later, when the others discover what’s happened to the binding spells. I suppose you could just let me leave, but I’m not sure I would make it out of here without getting stopped by someone.” He gave a wry smile. “Rittenhouse is full of paranoid people, in case you didn’t know.”

Wyatt almost laughed – almost. “Well, you’re not wrong,” he said, clearing his throat instead. “I was planning to get the drop on you, and then find a place to stash you for a few hours at least.”

“Ah.” He dropped Wyatt’s gaze, and then looked up again after a pause. “I did love her, you know. I wanted to marry her. That was never a lie.”

Wyatt wasn’t sure whether it was mostly the soulmate bond or his own jealous temper that caused the rush of possessive anger at those words. Either way, he swallowed it back. This was Noah essentially conceding any last remnants of hope he might have still had about Lucy. Which he really shouldn’t have been holding onto by this point, but still.

“Anyway.” Noah took a few steps away from the pool. “How do we want to do this?”

Again, Wyatt almost laughed. He didn’t usually have the chance to discuss with his would-be targets how he was going to knock them out. He scratched the back of his neck. “Uh, I guess whatever way of knocking you out is the least uncomfortable for you.”

At that, Noah did let out a short chuckle. “That’s very considerate of you. I’d prefer to avoid the risk of brain damage, so if you could just cut off the blood flow to my carotid artery for long enough for me to pass out, that would be least likely to cause any long-term injury. You don’t even need to actually cut off my airflow to do it.”

“So, a modified sleeper hold,” said Wyatt. That wouldn’t be difficult; he had plenty of practice with that hold, and since Noah wouldn’t be fighting back... Then he shook his head and cracked a reluctant smile. “This might be the weirdest conversation I’ve ever had, and I’ve traveled in time and talked a fair amount with a dragon who happens to be my soulmate.”

Noah returned the smile. “I don’t know if I should be honored or terrified to make that list. No, wait, I do know: terrified.”

A few minutes later, after they had discussed the logistics a little bit more, Wyatt was securing an unconscious Noah with the man’s belt and shoelaces. Before Wyatt had done as the doctor requested, they had walked over to a small chamber of the cave that was far enough from the main path that he imagined it would be a while before anyone else found him. And Wyatt had caught the other man before he fell and hit his head. So he’d probably be all right.

Another plus: Wyatt had just so happened to find some kind of ultra-healthy power bar thing in Noah’s jacket pocket. Which he’d felt free to take and eat before heading back to Lucy.

~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to be fairly sympathetic to Noah. I don't know if we'll ever find out if he was at least mostly a good guy or not, but I'd like to think at least one person in that timeline's Lucy's life wasn't terrible!


	5. Chapter 5

~~  
Lucy was more relieved than probably made sense, when Wyatt got back not too long after he and Noah had left. She was also relieved when Wyatt told her how everything had gone with Noah. It was just reassuring to know that her ex-fiance truly didn’t want to be part of Rittenhouse’s agenda, and was willing to risk this much to help her and Wyatt.

“Now, the next thing is planning what we’re going to do when tomorrow evening comes,” said Wyatt, “since that’s probably going to be when the rest of them have their disgusting ‘gathering’.”

Lucy shuddered. _Yeah, most likely._

“Although actually, we could be heading for a confrontation even sooner, if they notice Noah’s missing and track him down,” he said then, frowning.

_Or as soon as anyone else comes in and sees the binding spells are gone_ , Lucy added.

_True_ , said Wyatt with a nod. _So basically, we need to be ready whenever – although it’s possible that whoever brings you your next meal might not notice, if we play it right._

_Maybe_ , said Lucy doubtfully. The urgency of this coming confrontation was not a pleasant thought. She lashed her tail, taking care not to literally sweep Wyatt off his feet. _I don’t know how we’re going to stand up to them, Wyatt. Most if not all twenty-something of them are mages. They could just work together to tie me down again, especially if my mother makes me drink more wild magic first._

He was standing in front of her now, so they could talk face-to-face. _Well, we have to make sure you’re able to resist that stuff for long enough that she can’t use it to control you_ , he said. Then his eyes widened. _Hey, can you breathe fire?_

She stared at him. Then she laughed a little. Of course, he’d been researching dragons – and there was no reason why the legends of fire-breathing couldn’t have been based on fact. _I have no idea. I suppose it’s worth a try._

_I mean, no pressure, but if you could?_ Wyatt grinned. _I don’t think it would matter very much how many mages there were in the room._

Lucy had to agree. So she scanned the cavern, deciding that she might as well try aiming in the opposite direction of where Wyatt was right now. She turned around (relishing the freedom to do so, even though the space in here was still confined). _I really have no idea what I’m doing_ , she muttered.

_I’m not going to judge_ , Wyatt said. _You’ve only been a dragon for a few weeks, and you’ve been tied down for pretty much that whole time._

Making sure he knew she appreciated his unwavering support, Lucy took a deep breath, trying to concentrate on the desired result of creating fire. Which wasn’t as ridiculous as it sounded, since she was, after all, a dragon. She hoped she wasn’t imagining the warmth building in her belly. And then she blew out the breath, as hard as she could.

Just as she released her breath, Lucy staggered and almost fell over. It was happening again: that extremely strange feeling of dislocation or disconnect, like she was her human self but also still inside her dragon body. It was really hard to keep any sort of control over the huge, ungainly weight of the dragon like this. It was hard to breathe, too.

“Lucy!” _Lucy!_

That was Wyatt. Lucy opened her eyes. She was lying on her side, not at all comfortable since one of her wings was sort of under her, and Wyatt was on his knees in front of her head. He was pale, and the hand he reached out to stroke her face was trembling. _Are you okay?_

She breathed in and out, slowly. The bizarre sensation of being there in both her forms at the same time was almost totally faded. _Yeah. I think so. Did-- did that hurt you?_

_No, I just got dizzy again_ , he said. His eyes were wide. _Lucy, I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t have suggested you try breathing fire if I’d known this is what it would do to you!_

_Did it work?_ She tried to sit up, and managed it after one false start.

_Take it easy_ , Wyatt cautioned. She could tell he wanted to help her, but there wasn’t much he could do. He watched her as she made it into a sitting position. _To answer your question, yes, there were some flames. I’m guessing it might have been even more impressive if you hadn’t, uh, fallen over right then._

She blinked and turned to look at him. _I don’t think it was the fire breathing that caused that_ , she said slowly. _I think it was the same thing that hit us earlier, which had nothing to do with me trying some new draconic ability. So this right now was just bad timing._

Wyatt sighed. _All right. But I wish we had some idea of why this keeps happening._

Lucy agreed. She took the time right then to try to look objectively at the sensations and feelings that had made up this most recent experience, as well as the first one. There wasn’t any commonality she could think of, regarding what might have prompted each one. But when she brought to mind as much as she could of how she’d felt during each experience, there was one thing that she was pretty sure of, looking back: while there was no indication that this was some kind of exterior attack, she had felt sick each time. Like Wyatt had, but worse.

When she relayed that to Wyatt, he looked even more confused. “I guess it’s good that it doesn’t seem like someone is attacking you.” He scratched his face. “But still. It’s not like it would make sense for this to have anything to do with what you’ve been eating...”

That was certainly true. _Anyway. Back to planning._

“Yeah.” He sighed. “I only have two clips of ammo, so that means I won’t have too many chances of taking people out permanently.”

Something occurred to Lucy just then. _And we have to be as careful as we can not to get separated_ , she told him, aware that her voice sounded almost panicked. _Because if they separate us, they can use us against each other._

Wyatt’s eyes widened, as he followed her train of thought. _That’s … a definite wrinkle._ If one of them were threatened, the other would have no choice but to back down. That was a fact, since not only did they both naturally care deeply about each other’s welfare, but now they literally felt each other’s pain. _In that case, I’ll do my best to stay at your side._

_Do that_ , said Lucy, leaning closer so she could nudge him in the shoulder. He leaned into her neck. Neither of them mentioned the undeniable fact that, even if they were as successful as they hoped to be during this fight, that wouldn’t answer the question of how Lucy could ever get out of this cave.

To their relief, when Lucy’s dinner delivery arrived, it was just the other guy who had come with Noah the last two times. He was distracted and on edge, and didn’t seem to notice anything unusual about Lucy. She had, of course, made sure she was sitting in the same place she had been tied up before. This delivery guy was not nearly as interested in making sure Lucy got what she needed. For one thing, he’d only brought the one wheelbarrow, with three sheep carcasses in it. For another, he just dumped them within Lucy’s reach, and then backed away. “I’m not sticking around alone in here,” he mumbled, glancing around the cavern as if he expected some creature to jump out of the shadows at him. “Who knows what even happened to that stupid, stuck-up doctor when he came back by himself?” He stared at Lucy for a few seconds, and then looked away quickly. Lucy very deliberately lunged forward to grab her last sheep off the ground, getting no small amount of satisfaction at the way he jumped back, then reached forward again just long enough to get the wheelbarrow and hurry out of the cavern.

_You know, I think he was afraid you ate Noah_ , said Wyatt, as he started to climb out from under her wing. His tone was highly amused.

Lucy laughed. _I think you’re right._

~~  
Despite all their preparations, when it all went down, there wasn’t a whole lot that went right.

It would have probably gone better if it hadn’t started with the two of them being woken up before dawn the next morning by something that had to be a spell brushing over them. It felt to Lucy (and therefore to Wyatt) like it came from more than one person – and it also felt like it was looking for something.

_Damn it_ , said Lucy, getting to her feet after Wyatt had climbed down from her back. Her agitation was increasing by the second, he could tell. _They have to know the binding spells are gone now. They might even have sensed you, if the spell was strong enough._

_Maybe_ , said Wyatt, _but it’s not like we’re totally unprepared._

Before he could continue his argument, however, at least twenty people came pouring into the cavern, from both entrances. Lucy hissed and backed up so that she had a wall at her back, with Wyatt right at her side. He’d taken out his gun as soon as he realized what was happening. Most of the Rittenhouse folks were holding what Wyatt assumed were their wands. He wondered briefly why Noah hadn’t seemed to need one yesterday, but then put that out of his mind for now.

“So it’s true,” said Carol, coming to stand at the front of the group, “your binding spells are gone, Lucy. Do we have you to thank for that, Master Sergeant? Except … you’re not a mage.”

Wyatt said nothing. There was nothing to be gained by answering at the moment.

“He’s not,” called Emma’s voice from the entrance to the main tunnel, “but this traitor is.”

Wyatt and Lucy’s hearts sank as the redhead dragged Noah to where Carol was standing. He was gagged and his hands were bound behind his back. He also had a black eye and generally looked much worse for wear, like maybe it had taken Emma a while to get what she wanted from him. When he met Wyatt’s gaze, Wyatt could see an apology there.

“So you found him?” Carol’s eyebrows rose. “And felt the need to rough him up, apparently.”

“Only when he lied to me about what happened to him,” said Emma with a smirk. “Turns out, the doc’s not that great of a liar. It didn’t take me too much effort before he confessed that he’s the one who freed Lucy from her bindings.”

Carol stared at Noah, while some of the other Rittenhouse members there started to make their anger at him known with ominous murmurs and cries of “Traitor!”

“I guess I should have seen this coming,” said Lucy’s mother, shaking her head. “You always were very fond of Lucy, even after she rejected you, Noah. It speaks well of your compassion, but you're going to have to be disciplined. But first...”

When she turned toward Lucy, her daughter hissed again and then let out a warning burst of flame that made everyone in the cavern jump back, some with accompanying screams. Emma swore out loud, and Wyatt hid a grin when he realized Lucy had purposefully aimed right at her. It looked like her face might have even been a bit singed. And Wyatt was also relieved that this didn’t cause any kind of dizziness or any other reaction for Lucy, as far as either of them could tell.

Once the smoke cleared, Wyatt could see how shaken everyone was – including Carol. Her eyes were wide. “That was … very impressive, Lucy,” she said.

“Sure,” said Emma, coughing. She raised her wand. “Let’s stop it from happening again, shall we?”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Wyatt said loudly, aiming for the woman’s heart. If she even had one.

“Do you really think you can out-draw a roomful of mages?” was Emma’s response.

Wyatt shrugged a little. “Maybe, maybe not,” he said. “But I can definitely take you out.”

_Wyatt_ , said Lucy then, her tension increasing.

_I know_ , he told her. It wasn’t a good idea to antagonize Emma. But they didn’t have a whole lot of options here.

Carol and Emma looked at each other. Then Emma shoved Noah at one of the guys standing near her. “Take him out of here. He’s only going to get in the way.”

The guy nodded and ushered Noah toward the back of the group. That was all the warning Wyatt and Lucy got.

There was an intense blast of air, so strong that it knocked Wyatt off his feet and even made Lucy back up a few steps. The mages followed that up with a barrage of other attacks, but Lucy had recovered enough right away to spread her wings to their full span, blocking the attacks from hitting Wyatt at all. From what Wyatt could tell, they bounced off her hide largely without causing pain. So clearly, the aim was not to hurt Lucy. They had no such worries about him, he was sure.

Wyatt rolled over onto his stomach, peering out from beneath Lucy’s wing. There was some dust stirred up into the air, but he could still see well enough to fire a few shots at the Rittenhouse attackers. Lucy, in turn, had just breathed another huge burst of fire toward them. Some of the mages screamed and fell.

“Come on, you idiots!” Emma yelled, from somewhere in the middle of the group. Wyatt tried to focus on her bright red hair. “Shielding spells! Unless you want to get roasted or shot!”

Shielding spells. That didn’t sound good for him and Lucy. Wyatt aimed at her and fired, cursing when it only barely grazed her shoulder. She stumbled but didn’t fall. And then, a few seconds later, he saw Lucy’s next column of flame hit something invisible in the air, at least a foot in front of the Rittenhouse mages. His next shot also ricocheted; it was only pure luck that kept it from hitting Lucy.

_No!_ he heard Lucy shout as she also saw what was happening. _Wyatt, you have to--_ she started to say.

Then there was another blast of air, like the first one. Lucy’s wing was blown back, exposing Wyatt, while she herself staggered. That was when Emma, Carol, and three other mages raised their wands in unison. Streams of light rushed toward Lucy’s head – and a second later, Wyatt saw the hated binding spell reappear at her neck. Lucy screamed. The sound was like a knife to his heart.

“No!” Abandoning his gun, since it wasn’t going to do him any good now, Wyatt launched himself toward the nearest mage, driving the guy to the ground and knocking him out with a well-aimed punch before the other remaining Rittenhouse members pulled him off and wrenched his arms behind his back. From there, it was a pathetically short amount of time before he had what he assumed was his own binding spell on his wrists, and a triumphant, disheveled Emma was holding a large knife to his throat for good measure.

“Okay,” said Carol, who was breathing heavily. Her clothes and hair were also rumpled. “How are we all doing? Who needs medical attention?”

Of the twenty or so people who had come into the cavern just minutes ago, Wyatt saw at least five dead, and four badly wounded. Noah, he saw with some relief, was still standing upright at the back of the cavern. He stepped forward.

“Yes, I suppose we ought to let Noah do his job here,” said Carol, seeing this. “Peter? Cut him loose. We can discipline him later. Ryan, Cecile, you two can help him triage.”

“And what do we do with soldier boy here?” said Emma, pressing the knife closer to Wyatt’s throat. Wyatt held himself still, though that didn’t mean he couldn’t glare at her. “He’s going to keep causing trouble if we don’t get rid of him.”

Lucy roared and pulled against the bindings on her neck – with no result. The torrent of her fear, rage, and grief was making it harder and harder for Wyatt to hold his composure. Not that he blamed her. The idea of being forcibly removed from her, without a chance in hell of being reunited…

Carol sighed. She looked from Wyatt to her daughter, and then nodded. “Do it.”

Before Wyatt could do more than tense and prepare himself to try for what would have to be a dangerous and painful escape, there was a cry from elsewhere in the cavern: “No! Don’t!”

Emma and Carol both turned to look at Noah. Apparently they’d taken his gag off when they allowed him to start seeing to his fellow Rittenhouse members' injuries. One of the other guys there was following him closely, Wyatt saw.

“Why are you speaking up for your rival?” Emma said, scoffing. “If we take him out for you, then maybe someday--”

“If you kill him, you’re killing Lucy, too,” said Noah. He met Lucy’s gaze for a second, and then sighed and stared at the floor. It was easy to tell what was coming next.

“No,” said Wyatt urgently, but the man refused to look at him. Emma pressed the blade more closely to his throat, and Wyatt felt Lucy’s fear spike. He stopped moving.

“And why is that, Noah?” asked Carol.

The doctor opened his mouth and then closed it, seeming torn. Finally he spoke, still not looking at anyone. “Because they’re soulmates.”

There were gasps and scoffs from various people around them. It was clear most people didn’t believe him.

“It’s true!” Noah protested, trying to move forward only to be stopped by his guard pulling him back none too gently. “I did a detection spell on him. The two of them have corresponding soul marks!”

Carol looked at Emma. “That should be easy enough to verify.”

The woman nodded, which Wyatt could feel from her position right behind him. “All right, soldier boy. Take off your jacket and lift up your shirt.” The bindings on his wrists disappeared.

Wyatt didn’t make a move to obey. Whatever happened if (when) Rittenhouse confirmed this, it wasn’t going to be good. He gritted his teeth, as the edge of the knife blade cut his skin just the tiniest amount. This was it. He wasn’t going to stand here and let this happen.

In one fluid motion, Wyatt jammed his elbow into Emma’s abdomen, and then spun away from her while reaching to seize the hand that was holding the knife. For a few moments, it looked like he might be able to pull this off: he wrestled the knife away from her, and immediately used it to press the attack against her. One of his strikes was even fast enough that Emma wasn’t able to dodge entirely. But he was still outnumbered by a lot – even with at least nine enemy combatants out of commission. Even Lucy’s shouted mental warning didn’t mean he really had any effective way of defending himself against the three other mages who joined together at that moment to shoot some kind of stun spell at him. It knocked him backward onto the ground. As he fought to regain his breath, he realized the knife had fallen out of his hand and clattered to the ground two feet away from him.

“Let’s try this again.” Emma and one of the other mages hauled him upright roughly. Emma reclaimed her knife. The other two were right there, ready to attack again. There was no way he could see to avoid this now. Lucy couldn’t see one, either.

~~  
“Well, this is very interesting, in fact,” said Carol. “And it does change things.”

Lucy could only lash her tail and watch in horror, held back from intervening by the binding spells on her throat. She had already tried breathing fire again. It was still possible, but the dampening effect of the spells meant that she couldn’t reach anything useful with the flame. Plus she couldn’t even raise her head more than a few feed from the ground, with how little slack they’d given her. And now Carol, Emma, Noah, and about ten other Rittenhouse members, the ones who were left, were all now staring at Wyatt’s soul mark.

“I mean, that is pretty blatant,” said Emma. She stepped back around behind Wyatt, smirking as she did so. “And kind of sweet, in a doomed, Beauty and the Beast kind of way.”

Wyatt clenched his jaw but said nothing. Lucy knew Emma had broken his skin at least once with that terrifying knife of hers, though she couldn’t see any blood from her vantage point.

“Emma,” said Lucy’s mother then, her voice suddenly sharp, “what is that? On his shoulders.”

“What?” Emma used the hand that wasn’t holding the knife to move Wyatt’s shirt aside – and then both she and Carol gasped. Lucy could almost hear the wheels turning in their heads, as they drew the obvious conclusion. This could be even worse.

“This has to be related to their soulmate bond,” her mother said. “And if so...”

“What if there was a way we could try to see if we could make this progress to its logical conclusion?” Emma said. “Then we’d have two dragons. Obviously we’d need to take into account the space concerns, but still--”

“What, you mean try to transform him the rest of the way, the same way I transformed Lucy?” Carol shook her head. “It wouldn’t work, Emma. You know how much care I had to take with Lucy. I’ve been preparing her since she was twelve, with doses of wild magic at intervals that I determined to be optimal by my own careful study. And she’s the pure-blood daughter of two Rittenhouse family lines, each of which gives her a strong magical heritage! Her soulmate has none of that preparation. A dose of wild magic could kill him outright. We can’t risk her like that.”

Lucy felt like she was drowning. Not only were they talking about using Wyatt the same way they had been using her, trying a dangerous magical procedure on him with almost no thought for his own welfare, but what her mother had just said… She felt tears building in her eyes, and tried her hardest to force them back. Was it really so much worse to hear more of the cold, calculating details of what her mother had done to her for her whole life? (It was. It was unimaginably worse.)

_Lucy_ , he said, trying to step toward her only to be halted by the knife at his throat. _Lucy, I’m sorry._

She scoffed. _It’s not your fault. I should be apologizing to you._

_Nothing they do to me is your fault_ , he said without hesitation.

She didn’t reply. She had to pay attention to what Emma and her mother were saying. It sounded like Emma acknowledged her mother’s point, but had a suggestion. “You’re right. We can’t give him the same kind of dose as Lucy can handle. But how about we try a smaller amount? I think it’s worth a little risk.”

“No, it’s not!” Noah interjected. Turning to Lucy’s mother, he said, “Look, Carol – I know I’ve let you down, but I only did what I did for Lucy’s sake. If you kill or even permanently incapacitate her soulmate – both of which are very possible consequences if you give him wild magic – you’ll be hurting her, physically. Which is all you seem to care about.”

Carol raised her eyebrows at that last comment, even as the man Lucy thought was named Peter grabbed onto him and dragged him back a few steps. But Carol didn’t dismiss him out of hand, either. “Let’s all take some time, get cleaned up, and discuss these new developments,” she said. “For now, the Master Sergeant will stay here – secured, of course – with Lucy. When we bring her breakfast, we can bring him something as well.”

Within a few minutes, Wyatt had been secured by the ankle to the cave floor, and everyone had left. Lucy took a breath. They were both alive, and mostly unharmed. Those were good things. Even if this was only a short reprieve.

Naturally, her mother and Emma had made sure (there was no way this was an accident) that she and Wyatt couldn’t reach each other now. Wyatt tried; he pushed himself painfully to his feet and walked toward her as far as the length of his ropes would let him, and then sat down, and then stretched out as far as he could. Lucy stretched out her wing, and the tip almost reached his fingertips – but not quite. She shut her eyes and sank to the ground.

A few long minutes passed. “Lucy,” he breathed, and her heart broke a little further at the pain in his voice, and what he was thinking about, “I know you don’t want me to apologize, so I’ll try not to. I just-- I wish we could have had more time.”

_Please don’t say goodbye, Wyatt_ , she begged him, opening her eyes so she could look at his face. _I know this seems – it seems like there’s no way for us to get out of this, but we have to. We just have to._

_I’m not giving up_ , Wyatt said. He sat up and dusted off his hands on his jeans – which didn’t exactly help, since they were dirty as well. _I just don’t want to leave anything unsaid._

Lucy blinked, knowing that would cause a tear to run down her face. _Okay_ , she said, _but I don’t want you to--_ Then she froze. _Wait. Someone’s coming._

He got to his feet, and so did she. They both knew a second before she appeared that it was Emma.

She stopped just inside the cavern, looking at them both with a faint smile. “Don’t worry, it’s just me,” she said, holding up her hands to show they were empty. She was wearing a cloth bag over one shoulder. “And I’m not here to bother you. I’m sure you two lovebirds would rather it just be the two of you in here. I’ll only take a minute of your time.”

“What do you want, Emma?” Wyatt said.

“Funny you should ask.” With that, Emma pulled a small jar out of her shoulder bag. The brightly-colored liquid inside was instantly recognizable.

Lucy roared, and Wyatt immediately moved as close to her as he could. “So you’re here to steal more blood from Lucy, like the parasite that you are?” he growled.

Emma chuckled and shook her head. “Your protectiveness is sweet, Logan, but no. This is for you.”

_NO!_ Lucy screamed. _Wyatt, no, you have to fight this. It’s going to look really, really appealing, but you have to resist._ Even as she frantically told him this, she knew he could tell how terrified she was that there was no way to resist it. Maybe it would be a little easier for him, since he’d never had direct experience with it … but on the other hand, he felt what she felt.

“I’m guessing you didn’t get your boss’s approval for this,” said Wyatt, now taking a step back from Emma. That was about as far as he could go. His eyes kept traveling to the jar of wild magic, Lucy saw with growing dismay.

“No,” agreed Emma with a shrug. “But I’m confident she won’t be too upset. This isn’t enough to kill you, even if it doesn’t work the way we want. So I’m really just speeding up the timeline of events. Stopping things from dragging on and on, you could say.”

“And if it does work how you want it to work?” Wyatt said. He gestured toward Lucy, and then around the cave. “There’s not enough room for two dragons in here.”

Emma nodded, moving toward him slowly. “All of my research – as well as Carol’s – suggests we’ll have some time to move you before any full-scale transformation happens. No pun intended.”

The closer she got, the more Lucy wanted the wild magic. And that was not helping Wyatt to resist it. Lucy shut her eyes again and tried to think about anything else. _I’m sorry, Wyatt_ , she said desperately. _God, this is-- please, fight against it if you can. But it’s not your fault – I’m not going to blame you if you can’t._

He was wavering. She could feel it, even though she wasn’t watching. And Emma was carefully taking a route toward him that meant Lucy couldn’t reach her with her tail or wings, even though those had not been tied down again.

“See, I thought your soulmate bond with the dragon princess over there would have an effect on you when you saw this,” Emma was saying, sounding pleased. “She loves the stuff. Can’t get enough. I bet you’d like to try it for yourself.”

Wyatt didn’t say anything in response, but Emma was close enough to him now that there was nowhere he could go.

“Come on, Wyatt,” said Emma. “It’s yours for the taking.”

Lucy opened her eyes just in time to see Wyatt try to shove the jar out of Emma’s hand. But he hadn’t shoved very hard, and so Emma maneuvered it so that the jar ended up in his hand instead. He stared at it.

_Wyatt!_ she said. It was like she was shouting at nothing, like he couldn’t hear her at all. He opened the jar and drank.

The effects were instantaneous. As soon as he’d swallowed the last drop (Lucy hated herself for how the smell made her want it), he swayed, eyes wide, and let go of the jar. Emma barely caught it in time – and didn’t catch Wyatt when he crumpled to the ground.

_WYATT!_ Lucy lunged forward with all her strength. The binding spell gave a little. She kept pulling, ignoring the pain of it digging into her skin.

Emma, who had bent down on the far side of Wyatt to check his pulse (he was alive, though his heart rate was strangely unsteady), looked up at Lucy and cursed. She took out her wand and reinforced the binding spell hastily. “He’s not dying, you idiot,” she said, glaring at her. Then she stood up, staring down at Wyatt’s motionless form for a few seconds before quickly exiting the cavern.

Lucy lay down and stretched out her wing again. The few extra inches of room she had gained meant that she could just barely touch Wyatt with that wingtip. She sighed, knowing she would be outright sobbing if she could. He was unconscious, and his heart was speeding up and slowing down at odd intervals. Whether or not Emma knew anything of what she was talking about, this was a nightmare.

Over the next hour, Lucy lay as close to Wyatt as she could, watching him and telling him over and over that she was here, that it was going to be all right (which she tried to believe, for his sake as well as hers). His condition didn’t change much. Twice he opened his eyes, but didn’t respond to her if he heard her. Once, he convulsed and moaned, wrapping his arms around his stomach. Lucy was glad that that was the only indication he gave of being in pain, though, and it was only for a few seconds.

Finally, earlier than usual for her breakfast, Lucy heard the sounds of people coming. She debated standing up … but she really didn’t want to. She needed even this tiny amount of closeness with Wyatt.

Carol came in first, her whole bearing showing her anger at Emma, who was right behind her. She didn’t speak (Lucy could only assume she’d already yelled at Emma earlier, before they arrived at the cave). Noah was with them as well. His jaw dropped at the sight of both Lucy and Wyatt, and he rushed forward without waiting for his guard to catch up. Taking care not to crowd between the soulmates, he knelt down and felt Wyatt’s pulse. “He’s alive,” Noah reported, “but his pulse is … strangely inconsistent.”

“And what does that mean, exactly?” Carol asked, her hands on her hips.

“It means, it’s speeding up and slowing down repeatedly,” said Noah. “Which I don’t think I need to tell you is not normal for any human illness or condition.” He looked at Lucy. “Has he been responsive at all?”

Lucy shook her head. She wished she could share the details of what she had observed, since Noah, at least, really seemed to care about Wyatt’s welfare for his sake as well as hers.

“Can we at least check and see if the magic has had any effect before we decide this wasn’t worth it?” snapped Emma. She was clearly smarting at whatever tongue-lashing Carol had given her.

Lucy’s mother sighed and nodded to to Noah. “Would you check his back, please?”

Noah gently rolled an unresisting Wyatt onto his side, and pulled up his shirt. Lucy took in a sharp breath, as did both her mother and Emma. His scales had spread further down his back, nearly to his waist – and they were dark blue now, instead of brown.

As Noah eased Wyatt back onto his back, Emma was saying, “Well. So it did have an effect!”

“Yes, it does look like it,” said Lucy’s mother, frowning. “Maybe that’s the coloration he would have, if he--”

“It still doesn’t matter!” exclaimed Noah, standing up. “So what if he has more scales, and they’re not the same color as Lucy’s now! Even one small dose of wild magic has put a great deal of stress on his heart. If he dies now, Lucy will still die. End of story.”

Emma stepped forward, so she was looking Noah right in the eye. “You don’t get to determine what the end of the story is, traitor. Except maybe your story.”

“All right, all right!” said Carol loudly. “What’s done is done. We'll wait to see how long it takes for Lucy’s soulmate to recover from this – if he does recover. After that, we can decide about further doses. There will be no further raids on my supply of wild magic. Meanwhile, it’s time for Lucy and her soldier to get some food. Assuming he’ll eat anything, that is.”

Lucy found it hard to want to eat anything, with the combination of worry about whether Wyatt would ever come out of this, and what was happening to him because of it. Still, she made herself eat half of the animals she was given. She had to keep her strength up. At least she could help Wyatt that way.

To her intense relief, Wyatt’s eyes opened when Noah brought a bowl of what looked like instant oatmeal close to his face. He still didn’t look alert or even aware, but he seemed to know there was food. Noah made his guard, Peter, sit Wyatt up enough so that he could eat without choking. Which he did. Lucy decided that when ( _when_ , not if) they got out of this, she wouldn’t tell Wyatt that her ex-fiance spoon-fed him an entire bowl of oatmeal. He didn’t need to know that fact.

Once they were alone again, Lucy stretched out her wing again to touch Wyatt’s arm (which was all she could reach). She sighed. _Wyatt, I need to talk to you. I hope you’ll start to wake up soon._

There was no response – no words, anyway. But a few seconds after she’d spoken, he turned his head toward her.

_Wyatt?_ She tried not to get her hopes up too much. _Did you hear me just then?_

He opened his eyes again, and swallowed. Eventually, he met her gaze. “Lucy?”

Lucy really wished she could smile. Instead, she just let him feel her joy. _You’re awake!_

He blinked and then frowned. _What the hell happened?_

_Emma dosed you with wild magic_ , she told him. _You’ve been – out of it, for over an hour now. Maybe closer to two._

_Oh._ He still sounded confused, which wasn’t that surprising. Though she hadn’t gotten more than brief flashes of emotion from him ever since he’d been dosed, she could guess that any thoughts or images he’d seen while he was unconscious would have been very bizarre and even disturbing. He focused on her. _Are you okay? She didn’t do anything to you?_

_No_ , she assured him. _My mom was actually pretty mad at her when she found out, and so it’s been decided that they’re just going to wait and see how long it takes for you to completely recover. Oh – but I guess you should know…_

_Know what?_ He grimaced then, putting a hand to his stomach.

_What is it?_ She needed to be closer to him. _You’re in pain._

He shook his head and said, _No. Well, sort of._ It was more that he was still feeling unsettled. In fact, that sensation had only receded for a while, and now it was coming back. _What were you going to tell me?_

Lucy decided it was easier to show him. She hadn’t done this exact kind of thing before, but she guessed it ought to work. She concentrated on the memory of what his back now looked like, and did her best to pass that memory to him.

His eyebrows rose. _Huh. And that’s … because of the wild magic stuff?_

_Seems like it._

He caught her anxiety about the possible implications. _Well, even if that’s true_ , he started to say. But then he trailed off, groaning and curling in on himself. That sensation like everything in him was getting unsettled was growing stronger again. And then a few seconds later, he fell silent – though his eyes were still open and staring.

Lucy called his name. His gaze moved toward her briefly, but it drifted until he was just staring straight ahead. She could tell that he only kind of heard her. The magic-induced turmoil was too intense for him to do anything but try to ride it out.

A few miserable hours passed like that. He roused a few times, but not for more than a minute or two each time. Lucy wasn’t sure how much he remembered of their previous interactions each time this happened, either.

Then, sometime in the late morning, Lucy was distracted from her continual anxiety over Wyatt by a sudden wave of nausea, this time accompanied by a panic-inducing moment when it felt like she couldn’t breathe. And then there was that bizarre, disturbing sensation like she was her human self again while still being in her dragon form. Lucy lay on the ground, trying to breathe and hoping this would pass quickly. It was … frustrating. Now that was an odd emotion to be feeling while she dealt with this, she thought vaguely. But it was. She didn’t know what was going on, and she didn’t want to keep having to deal with this illness, or whatever it was. There was too much else going on right now for this.

Out of seemingly nowhere, her mother’s words from hours ago came back into her head: “She’s the pure-blood daughter of two Rittenhouse family lines, each of which gives her a strong magical heritage.”

Lucy blinked (even that tiny motion felt oddly difficult right now). That was … that was important, for some reason. Much as she hated the reality of her heritage, it was her reality. Which meant…

She let out a strangled-sounding cry and would have sat up, if it weren’t for the continued dizziness. It meant she should be a mage. She should be able to use magic.

And she shouldn’t be trapped as a dragon. Maybe … maybe this alarming sensation of herself being sort of split between human and dragon was an indication that her body was trying to reject the transformation. Like a--- like a transplant recipient could reject transplanted tissue, when the body recognized it as foreign and unwelcome. In which case, was there some way she could hurry that process along? Or control it in any way?

As if she needed the motivation, Wyatt groaned again from his spot on the floor. He might not be getting worse (she was pretty sure he wasn’t, and she hoped with all her heart that that stayed true), but he shouldn’t be here, either. Lucy took as deep of a breath as she could manage, and shut her eyes. She was the daughter of two powerful mages. She’d been given regular doses of magic her whole life since she was a child. There was no reason she shouldn’t be able to use magic now, dragon form or no.

It took her only seconds to be able to find the magic at the core of herself, which she had read about in biographies of famous mages of legend. The next step was doing something with it. Which was a little intimidating, to be honest. She had no wand, but then, the Rittenhouse mages that had been around her these past several weeks had only seemed to need to use theirs for certain kinds of spells. So … maybe she just needed to concentrate on the result she wanted? Was it that simple?

There was no point delaying. Lucy concentrated on her most immediate issue: the binding spells on her neck. After a moment, she could feel the mechanism of the spells, and from there it was only a matter of undoing them. Which took a little while, since they had been done by multiple other mages.

Lucy gave herself a moment to feel the relief of not being tied down. Then she shut her eyes again. Time to concentrate on the bigger issue.

This was more complex, which wasn’t surprising. At first, it didn’t seem like she was going to be able to separate the changes that had been caused by the wild magic from herself, her essence. That possibility was almost enough to cause her to freak out … but there was no time for freaking out right now. She was just going to have to look closer.

As it turned out, underneath the layers of magical changes that had been forced on her, Lucy discovered that what made her _her_ , her true self, was still there. It still felt – normal, and unchanged. The relief of this discovery was enough to make her tear up. No matter what her mother did to her, in the end, it was all external.

But again, she could process that kind of thing – probably with the help of a lot of therapy – later. She had to see if she could… Lucy almost laughed. She had to see if she could shed this skin, as it were.

Lucy had no idea how much time passed before she finally figured out the best way to do this. She knew she wasted time trying to disentangle herself thread by thread from the magic her mother had given her repeatedly over the years. Every piece she attempted to separate out just sort of reattached itself afterward, though. It was infuriating and discouraging. Eventually, though, she thought of a different solution: what if she could focus on taking the magic that was hers, not imposed on her, and using it to strengthen her true self? Maybe then she’d win out over the foreign magic that her body was already rebelling against. She could overwhelm it and, for lack of a better way to conceptualize it for herself, she could re-take control of herself.

_All right_ , she whispered. _Wish me luck, Wyatt._

Wyatt was only the smallest bit aware of what was happening. But she took comfort from knowing that he was here … and maybe after this, she could touch him and help him with her actual hands. That would be good.

It took a lot more effort than she had imagined, but Lucy’s idea did seem to be the right tactic. Her own magical strength, which was still so new to her, was enough to subsume most of the wild magic that her mother had imposed on her. She was transforming again – but this time, she was shrinking instead of growing. Her wings disappeared, and her tail, and her talons shrank back to fingernails and toenails, and finally she was on her hands and knees on the cave floor. She shivered. She wasn’t naked; she was wearing what she recognized as the blouse and jeans she’d been wearing (no socks or jacket, though) when she had first gone to say goodbye to her mother what seemed like a lifetime ago. But after weeks living with the bulk of the dragon, it seemed like that gave no protection or warmth at all.

“Okay.” That was her voice; it was a little raspy, but it was her voice. “Okay, Wyatt. Let’s get out of here.”

Wyatt blinked at her. His gaze cleared most of the way. “Lucy?”

“Yeah,” she said, smiling as she knelt down to get rid of his binding spell. “I’m back.”

He gave her a shaky, confused smile in return. “How?”

“I’ll have to tell you later,” she said. The binding spell here was simple enough; only one mage had applied it. But she could easily sense the wild magic still running rampant through Wyatt’s body. It looked like he had absorbed a very small percentage of it, and that was it. “We need to deal with this first.”

When she touched his arm, focusing on the goal of getting rid of the wild magic, she felt a jolt. Wyatt flinched. “Sorry. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He took a deep breath, and then sat up. “Much better, actually.”

And he looked better, too. There was vastly less wild magic inside him, and he was alert. The fact that she wasn’t sure where that wild magic had gone was something she could worry about later. “Then let’s go.”

“So,” he said, accepting her help to stand up, “you’re a mage?”

“Yep.” They moved toward the outside tunnel, him leaning heavily on her but showing no signs of falling. “I guess that’s one not-terrible thing about being the child of my mother and father.”

He huffed. “They apparently didn’t see this coming, either.”

“Apparently not.” If she sounded a little smug, well, she knew Wyatt didn’t blame her.

They made it out of the tunnel, and stopped in unison as Lucy sensed the border spell. To Lucy, it looked pretty much exactly like a tripwire. “So, I think we can just … step over it, but I’ll try to hide us just in case,” she said.

“Sounds good,” said Wyatt. Together, after she had attempted a spell to keep them hidden, they stepped over the ‘tripwire.’ Without tripping anything, as far as Lucy could tell.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Once they had gone maybe four or five yards away from the cave entrance, their surroundings started getting extremely baffling. Anything she or Wyatt looked at could start shimmering like a mirage at any given moment. Or disappear, only to reappear a few seconds later.

“Okay.” Lucy blinked and fought the urge to rub her eyes, knowing it wouldn’t actually help anything. “Maybe this is some side effect of Rittenhouse having made this area undetectable, like my parents mentioned earlier. So, it’s obviously magic-related.”

“Agreed,” said Wyatt. He shut his eyes and leaned more heavily on her. “But, uh, it’s kind of making me dizzy, so if there’s any chance you could do something to get rid of it...”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

This had very clearly been magic worked by multiple Rittenhouse mages, Lucy found right away. It was not going to be easy to remove. On the other hand, she could concentrate on clearing the path ahead of them. Making a shield around the two of them might work.

“Hey, that helps a lot,” said Wyatt, a few seconds later. He stood up a bit straighter, sounding proud and fond as he went on, “No one would be able to guess that you just found out about your magical talent in the past – what, half hour?”

Blushing faintly, Lucy said, “Well, I’ve always been a pretty quick study.”

“Of course you have.”

Both she and Wyatt were starting to flag by the time they reached the edge of the area that Rittenhouse had cast the spell on. Wyatt especially was struggling. It was no wonder, since the only things he’d eaten in the past forty-eight hours were two energy bars and a bowl of oatmeal, and he’d also been attacked and basically drugged. For herself, using this much sustained magic was a new kind of effort – but it was effort, nonetheless. But if Wyatt could keep on doggedly putting one foot in front of the other, she could, too.

Just after she’d thought this, Wyatt stumbled. She stopped and grabbed onto the arm that he had over her shoulders just in time to keep him from falling. _Sorry_ , he said, as she held all of his weight until he stood up.

_It’s okay_ , she said. At least she was able to hold him up. Which was a bit weird, now that she thought about it. Maybe she was using magic to help with that, too, without even thinking about it?

Mercifully, a few paces later, the landscape around them lost its weird shimmering mirage qualities. And then before either of them could do more than sigh in relief, they were surrounded by more than a dozen armed men wearing armor and dressed in black. They froze. Lucy took a breath, preparing to launch some kind of attack that she hadn’t even had time to try to shape.

“Don’t shoot!”

That was an extremely welcome voice to hear right now. Lucy and Wyatt turned toward where Agent Christopher was pushing through the circle of her troops, a wide smile on her face. “Wyatt! Lucy! There you are.”

“So you’ve been looking for us, then?” Lucy asked.

“Only since a few hours after Wyatt took off to find you on his own,” she replied, giving the soldier a severe look that was spoiled by the obvious relief in her eyes. “But those Rittenhouse mages seem to be really good at keeping people away. We only just found a way around it.”

“Yeah, well, they’re also really good at underestimating Lucy,” said Wyatt, turning to look at his soulmate with admiration.

Agent Christopher smiled again. “Well, good. And I’m sure you both have quite a story to share – but let’s get you to safety while we launch this raid.”

Lucy found herself yawning then, as Agent Christopher and several other agents wearing less body armor approached, ready to escort them out of harm’s way. Safety sounded nice.

Wyatt agreed silently. He was also thinking about how nice it was going to be to sleep in each other’s arms once the two of them were back where they should be. That was something they hadn’t experienced yet.

That was very appealing to her, for sure. And doing more than just sleeping would be even better, once they were a little less exhausted. Wyatt smirked and made sure she knew he agreed with that, too.

“Oh, but-- um, do your agents have some protection against magic attacks?” said Lucy, turning to Agent Christopher. “Because Wyatt and I took out some of them, but there are still more then ten mages who could--”

“Yes, Lucy, they’re not going in unprotected,” Agent Christopher interrupted gently. “You don’t need to worry about them. Let us take care of it.”

“Okay.” She yawned again, as she and Wyatt arrived at a waiting black SUV. She could get the details on that later.

~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter posted! It took me a while to work through some writer's block, but it's an extra-long chapter to make up for it. Also, I know part of it is weirdly metaphysical. I hope it's clear enough to follow, at least. If not, please feel free to tell me, and I can try to clarify it.
> 
> My goal is to have the last chapter ready within a few weeks or less. Thanks so much for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

~~  
One Month Later

Lucy turned over one more time, managing maybe a few more seconds of a light doze before she came fully awake. She squinted at the clock on her bedside table, and then groaned. Four thirty was just not humane. Shutting her eyes, she turned over again and buried her face in Wyatt’s neck, groaning again. Not that this particular restlessness had anything to do with humanity.

_So why are you bothering to keep ignoring it?_ her soulmate said, mental tone still sleepy. _You know it’s not going to get better if you wait._

_I know_ , she grumbled, not moving. _But I hate waking up this early._ She knew she sounded whiny, but she didn’t care. Wasn’t it enough that the lingering effects of her mother’s misuse and abuse of her daughter were apparently still going to make themselves known on a regular basis? She hated that it had to make her lose one precious, peaceful, slow morning with Wyatt this often, too.

Wyatt wrapped his arms around her and kissed her head. _I don’t like that part, either_ , he said softly. _But I’m going to be with you the whole day, anyway._

_Yes, I know_ , she told him, not whining at all now. Even after a little over a month since she had first learned they were soulmates, the way his presence and closeness – especially when they were touching – could calm her so completely still surprised her. She knew it went both ways, too. She kissed his throat, feeling him shiver, and then sat up. “Fine. I’m going.”

“I’ll be right behind you,” he said.

She leaned down again for one more kiss. Then, before that could get too heated and drawn out, she got up for real, pulling on a light robe as she walked to the back door.

 

It had only been two weeks after they had escaped from Rittenhouse that the soulmate pair had discovered that the dragon wasn’t as gone as they thought it was. Yes, Wyatt’s scales had receded to their previous extent, though they were still dark blue. Yes, Rittenhouse was all but eliminated, with all the remaining group members captured in Agent Christopher’s raid – except Emma, who had slipped away somehow. That meant Lucy and Wyatt could simply be together in their new apartment, rejoicing in their practically uninterrupted time of strengthening their soulmate bond. Their apartment had a twenty-four/seven guard rotation, in case Emma tracked them down, but the guards stayed out of their way as much as possible.

But on that particular morning two weeks ago, Lucy had woken up very early after a restless night. She had been snappish and short-tempered, and neither she nor Wyatt could figure out why. That confusion only lasted until shortly after six, when Lucy had gasped, suddenly ran out into the hallway, and then dashed up the apartment complex staircase until she made it to the roof. It was a very sturdily-built complex, which was good, because that was when she had transformed back into the same gigantic, dark brown dragon with glints of bronze in her scales.

Wyatt, who had hurried after his soulmate in a near-panic, hadn’t escaped the resurgent effects of the wild magic, either. He had just made it to the roof himself, just barely seen Lucy’s transformation when he swayed and barely caught himself in the doorway. When he stood up, he had cried out in shock. The blue scales on his shoulder blades had spread to cover his entire torso, and even along the tops of his arms all the way to the backs of his hands. He had claws, and – and some of his teeth felt sharper.

_Oh my God_ , said Lucy, staring at him in alarm. _Oh, no, no, no. Wyatt--_

_Don’t apologize_ , Wyatt had cut in, sighing and rubbing his hands very carefully over his face (he didn’t want to claw himself). _Just – can you fix this, like you did for yourself in the cave?_

But no matter how hard she’d tried, Lucy hadn’t been able to do anything to influence the wild magic in her own body, much less Wyatt’s. Although there still wasn’t much at all in him; the changes he’d undergone were all tied to her. It had become clear to her quickly upon examining herself that she must not have been able to get rid of it all when she thought she had. It was like she’d forced what she hadn’t gotten rid of to lie dormant, buried under her own magic – until it got loose.

The best she’d been able to do at that moment had been to lay an illusion over both of them. For her, that meant hiding herself as best she could from any observers in the air or anyone who happened to look up at the roof, and for Wyatt, she could make him look pretty much back to normal. Even though it was just an illusion.

She knew Wyatt was frustrated, upset, and worried for himself and her, but he just took a deep breath and said, “I’m going to go back down into our room, get my phone, and then call Agent Christopher to let her know that you’re transformed again, and that we’re concerned about the long-term stability of this apartment roof if we stay here. So we’re, uh, going to have to leave the building in a way that her people won’t be able to track us. And then maybe we can go try to find some place that’s at least more comfortable to spend some time while we figure this out.”

_Go? But I can’t just-- oh._ Somehow, she hadn’t even considered the possibility of flying until just then. There was no way that wouldn’t lift their spirits. _Yeah, good thought._

Wyatt gave her an amused half-smile, and went back inside to do as he’d said. When he got back out, carrying a water bottle and slipping on a jacket over his T-shirt, Lucy was crouched down on the roof. _I don’t know what the best position is for you_ , she said. And then stopped, very aware that were she human right now, her face would be bright red.

_You mean, for me to r--_ he started, but she cut him off.

_Do_ not _say anything about riding me, or I will dump you off as soon as we’re in the air._ Then she sighed. If they didn’t figure this out – if she didn’t figure this out – then this might have been their only two weeks together as human soulmates. Teasing each other about sex was not at all funny, in that case.

_Hey._ He came over and stroked a hand along her face and jaw. _Don’t sell yourself short. You’ve still only known anything about your powers for less than three weeks. I’d still bet on you to work this out._

Lucy leaned into his touch. _Yeah, but I bet you say that to all the dragons._

_Nope, only the ones who are also mages._

_I see._ She did her best to shift her thoughts away from worst-case scenarios. That line of thinking was not constructive. _So, what did Agent Christopher say, anyway?_

_She was worried_ , said Wyatt. _I didn’t go into a lot of detail beyond what I told you I’d say, but I promised we were both all right, and that I’d call when we had any updates._

That all sounded perfectly reasonable. _Okay. Um, any ideas where I-- where we should go? What are some of the closest state parks?_ She had no idea how long she could fly before getting tired, but she knew they weren’t extremely far from some possible locations.

_I’ll check._ He pulled out his phone and searched for a while, scrolling with more care than usual. _There are a couple, but I think Castle Rock might be the closest._

Lucy raised her wings. _All right. If you can point me in the right direction, then go ahead and climb aboard._ The weather was clear, and she was pretty excited to try flying. Even sitting here with the sun on her back and wings felt good, so she couldn’t wait to use her wings for what they were really meant for.

Wyatt climbed up to the spot on her back where he’d hidden or slept before. She felt him look carefully all around that area, consider various factors, and then move forward so he could sit at the base of her neck, one leg on either side. When he had sat down and was holding on, he asked, _Is this okay?_

_Yep._ She stood up. Now that it was almost time, she suddenly realized she had no idea how to do this. Was it really a good idea to have Wyatt with her the first time she tried this? What if she accidentally made good on her teasing threat from earlier, and he fell off?

_I’m guessing it should be pretty instinctual_ , said Wyatt, with no hint of worry. Because of course he wasn’t worried. Sometimes his ability to be calm was kind of infuriating. _Just don’t overthink it. Which might be a challenge for you._ She could hear his grin.

_Shut up_ , she returned, purposefully ‘slipping’ so that he was jolted forward. While he was still pretending to be outraged, she braced herself both physically and mentally, and tried to let her human mind step back so that her draconic instincts could come to the forefront. Then once he had told her what direction to go, she pushed off against the rooftop.

The first powerful downbeat of her wings propelled her a little more than she was expecting. Lucy gasped but only came sort of close to crashing right back down onto the roof. Wyatt tightened his grip but didn’t say anything. Thankfully, her instincts did seem to know how to keep her in the air.

And once she started to get the hang of it, flying was even more amazing than she had imagined. She felt freer than ever before, and Wyatt’s joy only added to the experience. She soared into the early morning sky, laughing. Her soulmate let out a whoop of exultation, not a trace of fear in his emotions as they flew on.

Wyatt had a compass app on his phone, which he was using (Lucy didn’t want to think about what would happen if he dropped it from this height) to help them steer. Since he was sure they would be safe from outside observers due to Lucy’s spell, though, she could tell he was pretty relaxed about the whole thing. In fact, after about ten minutes or so in the air, he asked, _What do you think your top speed is?_

Lucy gave him the mental equivalent of a raised eyebrow. _What, is this not fast enough for you?_

_No, no, I’m not complaining_ , he said quickly. _It’s just…_ She got a glimpse, then, of a memory that had to be his: careening around a corner in some kind of souped-up car, with the clear knowledge that the cops were not too far behind.

_Wyatt Logan!_ she said, shocked.

_What?_ he replied, with the mental equivalent of a shrug that didn’t quite hide his faint embarrassment. _I wasn’t hiding anything from you. You just never asked._

_We’re not done with this topic_ , she told him. _But to answer your question, I can try going faster._ She was nowhere near tired out yet, and in fact was feeling pretty good, energy-wise.

With just a little more effort on her part, a faster rhythm of her wings, Lucy felt the speed of the wind rushing over her increase. This was so simple and natural – and so much fun. Even though there was still the fear in the back of her mind that she wouldn’t be able to fix this, she wasn’t going to regret this chance to experience the best aspects of her dragon form in the meantime. And of course, the chance to share it with Wyatt.

In some amount of time that seemed crazy short, Wyatt was giving her a few final directions, and then Castle Rock State Park was quickly approaching ahead of them. Lucy set her sights on a likely-looking rock formation near the top of a peak. Her landing was not exactly graceful – but at least she didn’t skid off the rock or make Wyatt fall off.

He didn’t protest at all, though. In fact, with a not-so-graceful slide of his own off her neck, he ran around so that he could look up into her face. “Lucy,” he said, breathing heavily and grinning, “that … that was insanely awesome.”

Lucy, who was also catching her breath, decided that for now at least, she could just let herself be happy along with him. Even though the blue scales on his neck and wrists were even more visible in the sun out here.

The two of them relaxed for a while, enjoying the chance to bask in the sun. Wyatt ended up taking off his jacket and leaning against the front of her foreleg, while she stretched out her wings fully, the better to absorb as much warmth as possible.

The first half of the day had passed fairly pleasantly, in fact. Wyatt drank from his water bottle to stay hydrated, and when they got hungry, he encouraged her to try hunting while he went to do some foraging. “Technically, we shouldn’t be doing this in a state park,” he said, “but then again, these aren’t exactly normal circumstances.”

_And I’m not technically human right now, so you’re the only one breaking a rule_ , she pointed out. Although that forced her to think about how he was only mostly human right now, which was the opposite of cheerful.

She knew he had caught her thought, but evidently he didn’t want to dwell on that issue, either. Which she couldn’t blame him for. He just reminded her to keep their illusion spells strong, and wished her luck.

Lucy wished him good luck in return, and then took off again. She had never thought about hunting from the air before (oddly enough), but it was clearly what her dragon instincts expected. This area was too thickly forested to be a likely area for prey, so she flew until she found an area that had both grassland and also more exposed rock formations, in case there were bighorn sheep to be found there.

For a while, she didn’t see anything bigger than a ground squirrel. She supposed she might have been able to catch one of those, but it was so small that it would have just made her hungrier.

Finally, she caught sight of a bighorn ram on the far side of the rock formation. There was a ewe with a lamb, as well, but Lucy was much more interested in the bigger ram. Although she admitted to herself that even an animal that size wasn’t going to be enough all on its own.

Now she was aligned perfectly to dive down out of the sky at her prey. Lucy took a breath, strengthened the spell that hid her from view, and folded her wings.

Just as she was about to stretch out and seize the animal in her talons, both she and it were alarmed by a mountain lion suddenly leaping out from behind a large boulder. The ram bleated and tried to jump out of the big cat’s range. Deciding she might as well kill two birds with one dive, Lucy changed the angle of her dive just in time so that she could strike both animals nearly at once. Neither of them saw her coming. And while she had a little bit of an issue not crashing into the ground after that sudden course correction, she was still pleased with herself at its success. She felt slightly bad about killing two iconic wild California animals – but on the other hand, her ex-fiance wasn't here with a food delivery this time. She had to eat something, and she had to fend for herself.

Checking to make sure no one was around, Lucy went ahead and started to eat right there. It would have been annoying to bring both animal carcasses back with her, after all, she reasoned.

The two animals together were about enough for her to feel sated. But she wasn’t quite finished eating when she felt that Wyatt was wondering where she was. This was the longest they’d been apart since the cave, she realized. No wonder she was starting to miss him, too.

Grabbing the remains of the cougar in her jaws, Lucy took off, heading straight for her soulmate. He was back at the rock where they had first landed, and he looked up as she approached (there was no reason for her to have extended the spell hiding her from view to him, so he could see her just fine). _There you are._

Lucy landed a few feet away from him, dropping the half-eaten cougar as she did so. _Did you find something to eat?_

_Sort of_ , said Wyatt. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the cougar for a second. _I found some salmonberry bushes, but there weren’t all that many berries._

Lucy looked down at the remains of her meal as well. _Do you…_ She trailed off. That was probably a dumb idea.

_What?_ Wyatt asked.

She folded her wings. There was no harm in asking. _Um, did you want the rest of this? I could, uh, cook it for you. Probably._

He raised his eyebrows. _Oh._ She could tell he was intrigued by the idea, and also that he was still pretty hungry. _If you’re sure you don’t need it for yourself…_

She was still a little hungry, but not that much. And she knew she could find more for herself if she needed to, whereas Wyatt’s options appeared to be more limited. _It’s really fine_ , she told him.

_Then, uh, go for it._ He shrugged and smiled, stepping back to allow room for a burst of flame. _But leaving it a little rare is probably fine._

_Okay._ With that, she took a breath, focusing on that feeling she needed to have in order to produce fire. When she let it loose, the fire seared the cougar without blackening it too much. Lucy blinked, pleased. She had tried her best to aim a little high, so as to fulfill Wyatt’s request. She seemed to have succeeded.

Wyatt stepped closer again, crouching down to peer at the singed animal. _Huh_ , he said. _It actually smells pretty good._

_Other than the burnt cat hair_ , Lucy commented. She blew out a normal breath over the now-roasted meat, hoping that would help cool it down and get rid of that aspect of the smell.

To her further pleasure, Wyatt obviously enjoyed the meal. Even a teasing remark from her soulmate about how her cooking ability was apparently better in this form didn’t detract from the fact that he ate almost every bit of the meat – including the parts that were very rare. She supposed if that could be traced to the fact that he was more draconic than he had been before, at least that was only helpful to him in this case.

And then, just as Wyatt was settling down against her side so they could both bask in the sun some more, Lucy shut her eyes against a wave of nausea. Her dragon self felt heavy and ungainly, like it was weighing her down. It was … it was the same thing that had signaled that she was ready to transform back to her human form, when they had been trapped in the cave! She took a sharp breath. Even despite the extreme discomfort of the sensation, she couldn’t help the feeling of relief that welled up inside her. She wasn’t stuck like this. _Wyatt_ wasn’t stuck like this.

He was happy and relieved, too – but he had some advice. _Let’s wait, if we can_ , he said, running a hand over her side. He couldn’t sit up right now, since they were both feeling the effects of Lucy’s own nature making itself known again. _It would be a lot easier to get back to the apartment if you can fly us there, right?_

The nausea faded a little, but Lucy knew her own magic was still there – still ready. _I think I can do that_ , she said. This would only be the second time she’d ever transformed back, of course. _But let’s make it as quick as possible._ As much as there were good things about today, she wanted to be back in Wyatt’s arms. As herself.

_Agreed_ , said Wyatt. He climbed back onto her back, and readied himself to hold on.

 

And now another two weeks had passed. Lucy had theorized, after consultation from the mage that Agent Christopher had originally tracked down and recruited when she and Wyatt were still with Rittenhouse, that this was going to be a cyclical thing. The wild magic her mother had administered to her throughout her life was strong, and it hadn’t all gone away. In fact, the mage (Naomi was her name) had told Lucy that she believed Lucy had even absorbed most of the wild magic Wyatt had been dosed with. “You got it out of him by pulling it into yourself,” the woman had told her, looking both amazed and kind of worried. “It’s only your natural gift for magic use – and your strength – that kept it at bay for so long. I’m afraid you’re going to be dealing with this for a long time.”

Really, though, considering everything, one day every two weeks was not that bad. And now that they knew to expect it, they had been making logical preparations ever since that first time.

Lucy sighed, sliding open the back door. One of those preparations was this new house where they were living now. Their living space was nice, though the house was not huge. But the location made things much simpler. She and Wyatt could just step out into their backyard. From there, once the change hit, she could fly them further on, into the state park that was so conveniently nearby.

“You ready?” Wyatt asked behind her. His voice was gravelly with sleep, but his gaze was bright when she turned around to look at him in the doorway.

“As long as you’re coming with me,” she answered.

“Always.” Then he grinned, pushing at her gently. “Now, how about we set a new speed record today?”

It was getting to be almost impossible to wait any longer. Lucy rolled her eyes at his suggestion, even as she hurried out into the wide open space of their backyard. Wyatt shut the door behind them, and waited for his chance to accompany her into the clear morning sky.

~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end! But I do have at least one idea for a sequel, so we'll see how that goes.
> 
> Thank you so much for all of you who read this odd story, and who left comments and kudos!


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